June 25, 2026
How Lyme Disease Stole a Decade —And What Came After with Diana Gordon
<p><strong>"I lost a decade of my life, but there was an afterwards. There are times when you don't know if you're ever going to get out of this, but keep on… My life at the moment is the fruit of everything that's come before. So, keep the faith, keep trying." —Diana Gordon </strong></p> <p>When your brain won't stop looping through everything that's wrong, distraction isn't avoidance — it's medicine. That's one of the hard-won truths poet and novelist Diana Gordon shares in this episode of Dear Body, I'm Listening, after spending a decade navigating undiagnosed Lyme disease, neurological sleep disruption, and the particular grief of the world going on without you.<br /> Diana opens up about five years of dismissed symptoms before finally finding effective treatment, what the loneliness of chronic illness actually feels like from the inside, and the one friend whose phone calls every three days proved more healing than any support group.<br /> She also shares the unexpected story of how reading her unpublished novels aloud to a bedridden friend — someone living with a severe, rare pain condition — not only mitigated that friend's pain in real time, but reignited Diana's own creative life. Three books are now coming out as a direct result.<br /> Diana reads two original poems live in this episode:<br /> <strong> "Letter from a Long Illness"</strong> — a meditation on the invisible solidarity between people sick in separate rooms, written to every person who doesn't know if they'll ever get out of it.<br /> <strong>"Medicine in Mystery"</strong> — sparked by a Chinese acupuncturist who diagnosed her with demonic possession and prescribed dragons.<br /> She also talks binaural beats, the medicinal power of Netflix, and why conversation — just ordinary, everyday conversation — may be the most underrated healing tool there is.<br /> Diana's poetry book Loosestrife for Porcupines is available now at dmgordon.com. Her Substack, Leaf Sheep, delivers short animal poems to your inbox — perfect for interrupting the loop on a hard day.</p> <p><strong>Poem 1: "Letter from a Long Illness"</strong><br /> If you have been to this land as I have been, where I am now,<br /> You will know the chill fog.<br /> Know that the fig tree, so far from light, will not fruit.<br /> Maybe you are here, even as I write.<br /> Maybe you haven't escaped.<br /> We can't see each other —<br /> alone in different sick rooms of the same country,<br /> borders closed, pinned motionless.<br /> We did not meet at the atrium.<br /> You didn't complain your jeans were tight and choose the Reuben.<br /> I didn't use a matchbook to study a table leg.<br /> We don't do simple things here,<br /> where minutes are broken, and we can't make plans.<br /> Though you can't see or hear me,<br /> I'm writing on the faith that saying it keeps possibility alive,<br /> that it might not be too late for either of us<br /> to hike the prairie and collect sand spurs on our socks,<br /> to drive ourselves into thunderstorms.<br /> Not too late to stroll down Madison Avenue,<br /> admiring shirts displayed on seas of opalescent buttons.<br /> We might yet pass each other on the boardwalk,<br /> you in your tight jeans, shopping artisan stalls,<br /> your little dog in a basket on your handlebars,<br /> waiting for the borders to open —<br /> on the faith that thinking it keeps possibility alive,<br /> I am hoping to meet you there.</p> <p><strong>Poem 2: "Medicine in Mystery"</strong><br /> I've come at last to the Chinese doctor —<br /> diagnosis: demonic possession,<br /> spirochetes unbound by tissue, blood, or bone.<br /> His cure: release the dragons —<br /> iridescent white to fight the unnamed,<br /> salmon-colored to attack the known.<br /> I imagine them with folded wings,<br /> small enough to swim in human cells,<br /> sent after demons equally ancient, equally small,<br /> wh0 show themselves in cytoplasm<br /> the way creatures in opaque ponds<br /> create concentric rings unseen,<br /> break the skin of the water,<br /> Then return to hide in the mud.<br /> The war proceeds between the winged and wingless,<br /> And as in all histories, the winner will write it.<br /> The winner will be deemed good,<br /> Though every demon, electric, toxic,<br /> feels it is a child of the universe.<br /> Yet isn't there something always wrong about invasion?<br /> something always noble about defense<br /> So, in the end, I stand on a lacquered bridge<br /> over swollen runoff,<br /> a churning pond behind —<br /> It's April, ice on all the edges,<br /> the air hurts wonderfully to breathe,<br /> the water foams white,<br /> the sky, late and high,<br /> is riddled with salmon-colored contrails.<br /> The last dragons leaving.</p> <p><strong>Connect with Donna: </strong><br /> Website: <a href= "https://www.donnapiper.com/">https://www.donnapiper.com/</a> <br /> LinkedIn: <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper">https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper</a><br /> Instagram: <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/thedonnapiper">https://www.instagram.com/thedonnapiper</a><br /> Facebook: <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper">https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper</a> <br /> YouTube: <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper">https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper </a></p> <p><strong>Resources: </strong><br /> 📖 Loosestrife for Porcupines by DM Gordon <br /> 🤔Got a question for me? Every month, I do a listener coaching episode—and I'd love to hear from you! <br /> Send your questions, stories, or flare-up confessions to donna@donnapiper.com, and you just might hear your answer on the show.<br /> 💲Discount<br /> Get $20 off the Visible Wrist Band 2.0<br /> Click the link: <a href= "https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e">https://join.makevisible.com/73784699c7db3e</a><br /> **Wearable heart-rate and activity sensor, with charging cable and strap included.<br /> 5 days battery life<br /> Manufactured by Polar, the world leader in heart-rate monitoring<br /> Designed for illness, not fitness<br /> HSA/FSA Eligible<br /> 💗Springrose<br /> Give $20, GET $20<br /> When you share Springrose with friends, they get $20 off their first purchase and you get $20 towards your next purchase!* Share the love.<br /> <a href= "https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v">https://oken.do/0l3hpr6v</a><br /> 💗Equip<br /> Fuel With Real Food<br /> Meet Prime Protein, the original beef protein powder, with over 20g of delicious grass-fed beef protein. No junk or fillers<br /> <a href= "https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15">https://www.equipfoods.com/DONNA15</a><br /> 📖 Get Tricia's Book: Heal Your Hunger: 7 Simple Steps to End Emotional Eating Now </p> <p><strong>Episode Highlights:</strong><br /> 03:03 Meet Diana: A Lyme Disease Odyssey<br /> 08:33 Why So Many Are Getting Lyme Disease<br /> 15:08 Crushing the Loneliness of Chronic Illness <br /> 19:03 Conversation is a Medicine<br /> 29:00 Brain Looping Challenges<br /> 35:52 Poem: Letter From a Long Illness<br /> 39:54 Poem: Medicine in Mystery<br /> 45:04 Grab Diana's Books<br /> 52:02 Life After a Lost Decade</p> <p><strong>Quotes:</strong><br /> 02:02 "A lot of times, when we go through stuff, that's when some of our deep creativity comes out. There's always that beauty in the crack." —Donna Piper<br /> 06:32 "There was a year and a half when I was on 81 pills a day, taken 17 different times a day… I think this is a pretty common journey for people who are struggling with mystery illnesses." —Diana Gordon<br /> 14:35 "Depression is a real part of chronic illness. You need to know what works for you, too." —Donna Piper<br /> 19:17 "Just having a conversation is so healing when you can't do anything else." —Diana Gordon<br /> 26:03 "It didn't take a whole organization to do it, just that one person and that conversation. I think conversation is medicinal." —Diana Gordon<br /> 51:20 "You need to find these little moments to slow down and to heal yourself very slowly. It's a very long game. But by doing that and finding pleasures in that, then you really start to heal." —Donna Piper<br /> 52:10 "I lost a decade of my life, but there was an afterwards. There are times when you don't know if you're ever going to get out of this, but keep on… My life at the moment is the fruit of everything that's come before. So, keep the faith, keep trying." —Diana Gordon <br /> 53:57 "You can get better, you do get better." —Donna Piper </p> <p><strong>Connect with Diana:</strong><br /> Website: https://www.dmgordon.com/ <br /> LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ddmgordon/ <br /> Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/d_m_gordon_author/ <br /> Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61588185188220 <br /> Substack: https://ddmmgordon.substack.com/ <br /> YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3M3_JOf5wJOdhaAr4HwHIA <br /> BlueSky: https://%20https//bsky.app/profile/dmgordon.com </p>
