Steven Ciasullo
Fairfield County, Connecticut

Total cost: over $150,000
Number of family members with LD: 4 immediate, 16 extended
Lost work/school: ongoing
Number of years sick: 3.5

Steven did not have a tick bite. Steven did not play outdoors. Steven does not have a pet. Steven contracted Lyme before he was even born.

Sadly, Steven was not diagnosed until he was 18 months old. He had also been nursed by his mother who also, unknowingly, had Lyme disease.

This wonderful little pre-schooler now has chronic Lyme disease. Steven is so accustomed to constant pain, that he knows no other way of being. He does not know that it is not normal to have neck pain, back pain, hip pain, stomach pain, fatigue and weakness. He knows sometimes he can stand on one foot; sometimes he cannot. He willingly swallows his ongoing medications.

Since he was 18 months old, Steven has had massive oral antibiotics, horribly painful bicillin injections, and pain, pain, pain. He can be okay one day, pasty and limp the next. His sleep can be massively disturbed, and he arises the next day more exhausted than the one before. Some nights he sleeps soundly for 11 or 12 hours, only to fall asleep again two hours later. He watches his mother "do her IV", and helps to take care of his big brother and sister.

Chronic Lyme disease has created a bizarre and sad early life for Stevie. What will be his future?