Brooke Procida Takes to the Road to Promote Lyme Disease Healing
Many of us have embarked on cross-country adventures with plans to enjoy America’s superb national parks, cultural landmarks and regional cuisine. But Brooke Procida, an actress/writer/producer who has appeared on such TV shows as “Family Matters,” “The Sopranos,” and “As the World Turns,” is now on a journey that one might describe as participating in the business of humanity.
On an eight-day car trip that started on January 17 in Hilton Head, South Carolina and ends in Los Angeles this Thursday, Procida—a Lyme warrior who believes she went undiagnosed with the tick-borne disease and several other co-infections for more than 30 years—is meeting and interviewing patients, doctors and healers. She is joined on her journey with a crew of four who are filming her interviews for a “LymeLight Journey” docu-series.
Procida’s goal, she said, “to provide hope and inspiration” to countless individuals who are coping with Lyme disease and various other illnesses that “are often difficult to diagnose, expensive to treat and have often been deemed ‘incurable.’
“I have been all over the world,” Procida said.”I’ve seen hundreds of doctors and specialists and spent a lifetime researching health and healing,” she says. “Few persons have more information and experience than I do, which uniquely prepares me to undertake this journey of discovery and healing.”
The Long Island native who said she is “completely recovered” from Lyme, says she wanted to take her story on the road to talk with others who have recovered from “incurable” illnesses as well, and to “make sure that we as a nation start to look at incorporating and covering integrative therapies in this country, especially in cases where conventional medicine falls painfully and blatantly short.”
Procida says she thinks she first started suffering from Lyme when, at eight years old, her knee swelled inexplicably. Specialists thought she might have rheumatoid arthritis. Then she started to suffer from “massive chronic fatigue” followed by vertigo, panic attacks, chronic sinus infections and colds. She saw countless doctors and underwent numerous treatments. All through my twenties and thirties I was never one hundred percent,” she said. “There was a lot of confusion, sickness and pain.” One day in 1995, she said, she felt so sick and that she was certain she was going to die.
Her career constantly derailed, it wasn’t until six years ago that an integrative medical physician finally tested and diagnosed her with Lyme. “I asked my mother,” Procida said, “how could I have lived in Long Island and not known that Lyme was a real threat?”
Over the course of the next few years, Procida says she was “barely existing…all I was doing was surviving.” At one point, though, after “many times of being incapacitated,” she went to an integrative healing center in New York.
I visualized myself getting better. I knew I was done being sick,” she said.
Today Procida is eager to share her experiences with others and hopes she can serve as an example to those who feel there is no chance of ever recovering. “I want to give people hope,” she says. “Without hope, nothing will work.”
She and her crew have already filmed interviews in New Orleans, LA; Tallahassee, FL; New Orleans, LA; Austin, TX , and Lubbock, TX. For the balance of the trip, they will be in Phoenix, AZ; Palm Desert, CA and Los Angeles.
Procida’s LymeLight Journey project is being completely funded by way of a Go Fund Me page. For further information, go to LymeLightJourney.org
