February 2025 Marc Landry

Ten years ago, my health started gradually deteriorating. I knew something was wrong. After visiting my PCP and other Drs, I was eventually told all my blood work was fine and they couldn’t find a problem.  The problem was, I was feeling quite lousy every day, and it wasn’t due to stress, as several of the practitioners I visited implied to me.

In the summer of 2019, I suddenly experienced daily chronic headaches and migraines. Before that, I rarely had headaches and had never had a migraine. One day, I went into the grocery store at lunchtime and felt as though I was going to pass out after one minute inside. My head felt as though it were buzzing. I rushed out of the store, closed my eyes for a while in my parked vehicle, and then drove straight home. We called my Dr. who eventually ordered head scans and body scans and several other tests. The scans were thankfully clean. There were a few scares from the other tests, but they turned into, “you are fine.”

Headaches, severe light, sound and smell sensitivities, fatigue, sleep issues, gut problems, achy joints and the inability to concentrate made daily functioning difficult. I was not able to work. I was denied accommodations to work from home from my employer (right before the Covid fiasco turned this into a normality), which was okay because working became an impossible task given how bad I constantly felt.

A couple years later, after further visits with specialists due to much researching on my part, I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease by a Naturopath. At least I had finally received an official answer with medical evidence. The last five plus years, I have been treated by doctors from all over the country.  I have easily spent more than $75,000 of our own money on doctor visits, tests, supplements, many drugs and other therapies in order to have treatment. (Insurance doesn’t really cover Lyme disease treatment or many of these doctors, but that is a story for another time). 

After little reduction of symptoms in the last few years, my Osteopathic Dr. recently recommended me to a practice in South Portland, Harborview Eyecare. Dr. K’s practice is not only for general eyecare, but contains his Acquired Brain Injury Clinic. After his testing, he officially diagnosed me with Acquired Brain Injury. Dr. K clearly laid out to my wife and I this diagnosis based on my history and testing. I have had multiple injuries (too many to definitively count) in my life, including a few in the last five years, which they believe is what put my head and body over the edge. The timing lined up perfectly. I had too much brain inflammation. No other clinician or practice in the past had even touched on this or probed into my history of head trauma.

There was some relief when we were given this diagnosis. I have been given an action plan which includes daily and weekly eye exercises, special filter glasses to wear every day, prism glasses and more.  I finally now have some real hope that this health journey, which has educated me in ways I never imagined (and opened up rabbit holes I never knew existed), is heading toward an improvement in my health. I am blessed to have a supportive wife and family who have had to endure much frustration, scheduling issues and many other challenges the past several years. I remain thankful, positive, and full of hope for the future.