TV personality and model Yolanda Foster, best known for starring on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, has been suffering from so-called chronic Lyme disease since 2012, she claims. Lyme disease is an infectious disease caused by bacteria often spread by the bite of an infected tick, and chronic Lyme disease — referred to as neuroborreliosis by Foster — is something that seems to happen afterwards, if the original Lyme isn't treated properly.

But here's the thing: no one is really sure whether the disease exists. Some doctors, such as Russell Saunders writing for The Daily Beast, are pretty skeptical, arguing that Foster's doctors and healthcare providers are giving her erroneous treatment. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), meanwhile, seems to do best in clearing up the confusion: it's not chronic Lyme Disease, but rather Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS); in other words a continuation of the feelings of fatigue, pain, or muscle aches after short-term antibiotic treatment of Lyme. The CDC states that PTLDS gets better over time, and that prolonged antibtioc treatment "has been associated with serious complications," citing a study that examined why a woman died from inappropriate therapy for Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is caused by the bite of an infected tick, and it causes fever, headache, and fatigue, as well as rashes in 70-80 percent of infected patients. It's normally treated with antibiotics over the course of a few weeks.

But on her Instagram and in a new blog post, Foster has been creating a war cry among fellow "Lymies" to open up research opportunities for "chronic Lyme disease." “I have been battling Lyme disease for the past three years,” she writes in the post. “I wasted the first year trying to get diagnosed and spent the next two trying to find a cure. I have gone from the conventional long-term antibiotics to about every holistic protocol there is to offer. Unfortunately, I was only able to get to about a 60 percent recovery until I relapsed in early December and have not been able to find my way back.”

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Yolanda's Instagram is filled with images of her in the hospital, receiving some sort of treatment for her so-called "chronic Lyme disease." Instagram
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"Another day at the office, tired but determined to turn this mess into a message for all my fellow Lymies who's voices can't be heard," Foster writes. Instagram
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Foster appears to be getting strange treatment in Singapore. Instagram
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"A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you," Foster writes. Instagram

“As tired and hopeless as I feel at times, I have an undeniable spirit that will continue to fight and travel the world until I have the proper answers,” Foster writes. “I keep reminding myself that I was given this task for a greater purpose, which keeps me driven and motivated to think outside the box to make a difference not only for myself but for all my fellow Lymies suffering some form of this debilitating disease that we know so little about.”

Whether she truly has a disease we don't know about, will be up to the doctors whose care she is under — until then, we'll all be wondering what's causing her strange symptoms.