A Love Letter to Leggings, From a Woman With Lyme Disease

Dear Leggings,

I don’t take enough time to thank you for sticking by me during my struggle with Lyme disease, so here is an organized list of how you have blessed me these past three years.

1. You’re not as painful as jeans.

It didn’t take me long to realize those skinny jeans hug my body too tightly to wear them except for certain occasions. Otherwise, it was better to go with the button-less, snap-less, zipper-less, comfort-filled alternative — leggings. Most of my days are spent lying in a fetal position so there is no reason to look presentable. Leggings keep me somewhat comfortable during my Netflix binges and medicine sorting.

2. I can curl up anywhere in leggings.

Jeans, skirts, and dresses just don’t allow for the same flexibility that leggings do. When you wear leggings you are halfway in between being awake and part of the world, and asleep and dead to the world. I may show up to an event or party, but if I’m wearing leggings you better bet I will be passed out in a corner just because I can.

3. Bloating? No problem!

My digestive tract is a mess thanks to a pesky tick so, if I eat, I will go from practically flat-stomach to nine months pregnant. If I’m wearing jeans I have to unbutton my pants while imagining life if I would just buy maternity clothes. However, simply by wearing leggings I can bloat as much as my GI system chooses, but my clothes will stretch with me.

4. People think you are cute and put together…

…even though you definitely aren’t! If I wear a cozier nice shirt to church or throw a flannel on with my leggings for school, people think I’m going for that lazy-chic look even though my body is trying to kill me and those are the only clothes I am able to wear.

5. Leggings comfortably hide the fact that I haven’t shaved my legs in a month.

It’s no joke. Showering with a chronic illness is tough. If I do manage to do it, I’m probably only going to do the basics such as washing my hair. This means that my legs are usually neglected, but if I wear leggings no one will know but me.

Surviving Lyme would be so much harder if I didn’t have seven pairs of leggings. So in conclusion, my dear pairs of leggings, never think I don’t love you, because sometimes you are what get me through my hardest days.

Love,

Lymie in Leggings

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