During her first year of high school, Annajoy Thompson had a near perfect life. She had a 4.0 grade point average while taking honors and advanced placement classes, she played on the field hockey and softball teams and she was involved in several clubs.

Unfortunately, her life completely changed in the beginning of her second year of high school.

In the fall of her sophomore year, she began to feel symptoms such as joint pain, headaches, fatigue, anxiety and mood swings. Thompson also began to do poorly in her classes and always suffered from a low grade fever.

Although she was in unbearable pain throughout this time, Thompson reassured herself that there was absolutely nothing unusual about what she was feeling and persevered through the start of her sophomore year.

In December of 2011 she decided to go to her doctor to find out what was wrong with her.

“Sports and marching band season were over so I finally had time to go to the doctor,” Thompson explained. “It turns out that I had strep throat, a sinus infection, an ear infection and mono. They put me on antibiotics for the strep throat.”

Despite the antibiotics she was using, the symptoms continued. Like before, she was determined to get through school, no matter how ill she felt.

“I told myself that school was something that I had to do and I wasn’t the type of person to let myself slack off because I knew that school was important,” she stated.

On February 15, 2012, during her first period class she was not able to persist for much longer. Thompson decided to go to the nurse instead of her second class of the day. This was the last day she was in school for two months.

As these two months passed, she went to many doctors in order to receive a proper diagnosis. She met with neurologists, ear, nose and throat doctors and even acupuncturists, but no one understood what was happening to her.

Thompson also began to suffer from emotional trauma in addition to her physical symptoms.

“I felt so depressed. I didn’t understand what was happening to me, why it was happening, and why no one could help me.  I was always stressed and I felt like I was trapped,” Thompson explained.

Even though she was bedridden during these two months, she still attempted to get all her work done for school with the help of her sister who was a senior at that time.

“When her teachers knew what was going on, they would get together books and assignments and I would take them to her and bring them back,” Grace Thompson said.

On March 24, 2012, she went to an infectious disease doctor who said that it seemed like she had lyme disease. Thompson had already been tested for lyme disease when she went to her primary care doctor.

To test for lyme disease, doctors look for the antibodies that your body produces so that it can fight the disease. However, since Thompson had most likely acquired this disease at a young age, her body stopped making these antibodies.

Her infectious disease doctor tested her again by using a more thorough test. The results were available in April, and they came back positive for lyme disease.

She was immediately prescribed an antibiotic called amoxicillin. She took four pills a day and supplements to fight the illness.

“At first I saw a huge improvement. The joint pain and the low grade fever went away, but the headaches and the fatigue would just not let up,” she said. “The headaches were so bad that I would just be screaming on the floor in pain.”

Her doctor later believed that there was another disease causing the headaches and fatigue since it is possible to catch another illness while enduring lyme disease.

Eventually, there was a small trace of bartonella found in her system, which is known to produce headaches and fatigue.

After the bartonella was being treated, Thompson felt a bit better while she was on summer vacation.

“I didn’t feel great, but better than I had been during the school year and I was excited to get back to school for my junior year,” she said.

She began the year as a diploma candidate for the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. Within a month of her junior year, she found herself to be experiencing severe anxiety and chose to drop out of the IB programme.

“IB was so hard. I enjoyed the in class part of it, but it was hard to do the work after school,” Thompson said. “I ended up dropping it and taking only honors classes which were very easy, but I still felt awful and I had to go back home.”

Thompson was so ill that she could barely leave her home, causing her entire family to make adjustments.

“After we found out what was wrong I took off work and went to part time for almost a year, and we all changed our eating habits because she needed to,” mother Ruth Swenson-Thompson said.

While taking amoxicillin Thompson’s body lacked many nutrients and she needed to eat healthier food. Her family also changed their diet in order to support her.

Because she could not come to school, Thompson started Home and Hospital Teaching (HHT), a program for students who are unable to attend school due to physical or mental diseases.

When the fourth quarter of her junior year began she returned to school for one class.

“I wanted to ease myself back into school because I did want to come back for my senior year,” she said.  “I only came back during sixth period to take ceramics.”

She also joined the softball team as the substitute pitcher. In a few weeks, she became the starter pitcher for the girl’s varsity softball team. Thompson believed that it was necessary to be as good as the other girls on the team considering that she was less occupied with school. This mentality caused her to continue playing despite her draining disease.

She was prescribed another antibiotic called doxycycline in the summer of 2013 in addition to the amoxicillin she was taking since April of 2012.

Throughout this summer, she had many relapses and her health was fluctuating. When she went to her doctor, they found babesia, a parasite that travels through the bloodstream to the brain, in her body. This explained why her headaches were so severe.

Despite her conditions, she began working as a music teacher during the summer and still holds this job today.

“I got really good at playing the guitar while I was always at home, having the opportunity to do something productive using something I love made me feel a lot better about myself,” she said.

When she planned her schedule for her senior year, Thompson knew that she wanted to take easy classes. She was also granted a 504 plan which allows students with disabilities or illness’ to receive extra help with school.

Sadly, in the beginning of this school year she started to feel her symptoms come back and returned to HHT, but she still tried to make the best of her senior year.

“I missed seeing my best friend at school. It’s always so fun to hang out with her, so even when she’s not at school we make it up with our coffee and skype dates,” senior Christine Yang said.

A few weeks before the second semester began, Thompson was taken to the emergency room twice in one week. There she made the choice to stop taking her antibiotics.

“I decided that the side effects no longer outweighed the benefits of the medicine. It had done all it could do for me and it was time for me to stop taking it and move on,” Thompson explained.

Right now, she is back in school for the last semester of her senior year. At first it was hard for her, but with her support system she is able to get through each day.

“She can be a little annoying, but I’m always going to be there for her. I try to make her life easier by making her laugh,” brother Brendan Thompson stated.

Although Thompson struggled with the idea of her future during the first half of her senior year, she now is looking forward to it.

“I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to college. I even considered taking a gap year, but I think I’m ready to go out into the world and be on my own. I feel like I’ve conquered most of the lyme and can’t wait for what’s coming,” she said.