Avril Lavigne went underground at some point last year. She had been behaving normally (for her), promoting her album and shooting music videos and dealing with her disastrous marriage to Chad Kroeger, and then… she went dark. There were rumors that she was dealing with some kind of health crisis. There were rumors about drugs and alcohol too. And rumors about her marriage. It was all a big question mark, but now Avril is talking. She got the cover of this week’s People Magazine to discuss how she has been battling Lyme disease. Yikes!
I’m so afraid of Lyme disease, probably because I live in a somewhat half-suburban/half-rural area with lots of animals and fleas and ticks. My dog has brought ticks into the house before, and they always freak me out. I have a friend with Lyme disease too, and it was devastating for her – she was in a wheelchair for six months and the doctors did next to nothing. She felt like she was dying. It sounds like Avril had a very similar experience. Some highlights from the People cover story:
She started getting really sick last October: “I could barely eat, and when we went to the pool, I had to leave and go lie in bed. My friends asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ I didn’t know.”
Being diagnosed with a severe case of Lyme disease: “I had no idea a bug bite could do this. I was bedridden for five months. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t talk and I couldn’t move. I thought I was dying. There were definitely times I couldn’t shower for a full week because I could barely stand. It felt like having all your life sucked out of you.”
Her fans: “They were asking about me since I was MIA, so I mentioned to one fan directly that I wasn’t feeling good. The get-well messages and videos they sent touched me so deeply.”
How she is now: “I’m 80 percent better. This was a wake-up call. I really just want to enjoy life from here on out.”
Avril also told People that her mom moved in with her to take care of her and that Chad would come home in between Nickelback gigs to see her. While it doesn’t sound like her marriage is very strong, it does sound like Avril got some perspective. I feel sorry for her and it seems like her health really was in crisis. Poor Avril.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet, cover courtesy of People.
My husband contracted Lyme disease about 20 years ago. It wasn’t treated properly, and has reoccurred several times to devastating effect. Fortunately, he’s in remission right now, but it’s always hanging over our heads. Doctors simply don’t know that much about it, and most of them don’t treat it aggressively enough. If I could tell people one thing it’s that if you get it, go to an Infectious Disease Specialist immediately. DO NOT let your family doctor handle this. Go to someone who specializes in Lyme disease. It could save your life, or at the very least, save you years of pain and suffering.
god that’s terrible – but thankfully he’s in remission now! Fingers crossed it stays that way.
GNAT you are so right! These days Lyme is also complicated by other tick-borne co-infections a general doc might not check for. My husband’s Lyme came back unexpectedly in his spine. Even the dog got it and has never been the same. There can be serious musculoskeletal, neurological, and cardiac effects – and doctors do NOT agree on how to treat it.
Goodnames, great, great advice. Thank you!
Ugh. That’s scary. Fingers crossed for your husband, GNAT.
Like Kaiser, I’m also in a rural area with lots of ticks. Long trousers in tick season, always. I keep the cats and dog up-to-date with the flea treatments that also kill ticks almost as soon as they attach, but I’m still utterly terrified one of us will fall prey to Lyme’s.
But I would say that the NHS is totally on top of it in my area. Our GP surgery sends a letter round every year with precautions to take , symptoms to look out for and an exhortation to get to the surgery if you’re worried, and there are always notices from them up in the surgery, on the village noticeboard and in the village newsletter and all the rest of it.
It came as quite a shock to me when I moved here. No need for any of those preventive measures in the middle of London!
Oh no, GNAT. Sorry to hear that you and your husb had to go through this. I’m glad to hear he’s in remission.
One of my besties had a terrible bout with Lyme last year. I was shocked at how debilitating of a disease it is.
Have you tried the herbal route? There’s a book by Stephen Buhner called “Healing lyme”, it really helped me. 5 months of antibiotics didn’t do much until I switched to herbals.
Actually, we are using a machine called a Rife machine that puts different frequencies of electricity through your body and kills the spirochetes. It sounds crazy, but after traditional medicine didn’t do much but slightly relieve the symptoms for years and years, we got desperate. It has worked a miracle for us and my husband has been symptom free for over two years. It’s not approved by the FDA though, so doctors can’t recommend it.
Can you catch it from wearing too much mascara?
it wasn’t the mascara, it was the eyeliner.
Hi… Lyme kills people and makes them painfully suffer for years… Think a bit before you post insensitive comments…
I came across a really interesting article on the BBC website yesterday. A lady got cured from a severe case of Lyme disease when she got stung by a bunch of bees. I hope the medical community can get a move on and develop more targeted medication for illnesses like these.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150327-how-a-bee-sting-saved-my-life
Unfortunately, unless there is money to be made, the medical community doesn’t give a sh@t. As I said above, my husband did tons of research and found this machine that has helped him tremendously, but no one will have it FDA tested because there’s not enough money to be made. Not like a pill. So it remains off the record, even though it has helped so many people.
Those sorts of major health crises really throw you for a loop and lead you to question how you ever took being well for granted.
I have noticed that unless someone has been through a big health drama (i.e. something that knocks you on your ass for a few months), they just don’t get it.
It is particularly fun trying to explain your situation to an unsympathetic boss who never gets sick and somehow sees illness as a form of weakness rather than the luck of the draw.
Kath, thank you! I’m in the midst of my own health crisis, and I’m dealing with the same type of boss. It sucks. You feel persecuted for something you can’t help.
Yeah, it sucks. Being sick for months meant that I ended up getting a reputation for being ‘unreliable’ in my job. Because being in hospital is so much fun.
It still pisses me off, so I can empathise. Hope you get better soon 😊
That sucks, I hope you get better soon. I’ve had similar health issues but I’m very lucky to work for an understanding company, it really does make a huge difference.
Also: best. name. Evarrrrr.
That sucks. I’ve had friends with Lyme and the medical establishment can be terrible towards them. It’s often a whole ordeal to even get diagnosed, as a lot of doctors aren’t familiar with it or will think of other diagnoses first. And then once you’re diagnosed its a whole ordeal. I don’t wish it on anybody.
I caught the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion show last night and Yolanda Foster was talking about having Lyme Disease and it was obvious how wiped out and sick she was. It was hard to watch.
Yolanda Foster from RHOBH has this. She has tried a lot of Eastern medicine in her case.
I am terrified of ticks, they carry Lyme disease and Meningitis here. Lyme disease is easily preventable, tho, if you know the signs. After a tick bite, you have to monitor yourself for some weeks (I forgot how many). If a very distinctive circular rash appears (usually where the tick was, but not necessarily), it means you were infected with Lyme disease. You show it to the doctor and because this is the first, very early stage, antibiotics clear you completely. If you do nothing, the rash disappears (from several hours to a couple of days after it appeared) and you can be well for months before Lyme disease starts affecting other parts of your body: then it becomes harsh like Avril’s was. I hope she recovers completely.
That’s not always true. Wikipedia notes that around 20-30% of Lyme sufferers do not experience the tell-tale rash, so they would not be able to tell immediately. One of my friends experienced no rash. That was partly why it was so hard for her to get diagnosed – the doctors believed that if she had no rash, she could not have Lyme.
You are correct that it does not always appear, however I’ve noticed many people don’t know about the rash and ignore a very obvious sign (and 70-80 % is quite a big percentage for preventing). Also many seems to believe it only forms around the bite mark and only monitor that spot – and that is not true. A ring on a back that lasts only a day can easily go unnoticed. I am only pointing out that Lyme disease is often easy to spot early. And if the rash happens, don’t wait but see the doctor immediately (or take a photo because the bugger can disappear). If the ring doesn’t appear, then of course you can’t do anything early on, but as you mentioned, that’s the minority of cases.
You are so right. My nine year old had Lyme with no rash. He suddenly got ill for three days and had pain in his joints to the point he could barely walk. I asked about Lyme at the pediatrician’s and they said he didn’t have it but they would run a test to pacify me. My kid wasn’t getting better and he had intermittent joint pain, fatigue and debilitating headaches and could not enjoy life. I was sent to a neurologist who also treated me like an idiot for suspecting Lyme so I took it upon myself to go to an Infectious Disease specialist. Guess what my kid had? Lyme disease! This was ten years ago and it is much easier now to be taken seriously with just symptoms alone. Luckily, my son is fine now but I think it is important for people to know that you can have Lyme disease and not have that bull’s eye rash.
last summer i got what i thought was a mosquito bite. soon after a distinctive red ring appeared around the bite welt. the whole thing got a bit swollen and itchy, then disappeared after a day. how big do tick bites get? is there any chance this may have been a tick bite? and if so, am i screwed?
yael, tick bites can look like a bulleye. Google some pics online and definitely go to your dr and get checked!
The bullseye rash is not typically at the bite site, but can be. Tick bites aren ‘t usually itchy, but can be. It wouldn’t hurt to visit a Lyme specialist for bloodwork, though it isn’t always conclusive. If you have unusual fatigue, joint pain, or other symptoms, don’t ignore them; see a doctor and mention the bite. (I’m not a doctor, but I have LD)
I can’t answer that – it could be just an allergic reaction. That’s why you need a doctor to check it out.
The only tick bites I know were discovered with the darn animal still on me. I don’t know if any ever fell off by itself before they grew big. So I don’t know how a tick bite would look in that case. But the bite itself was just a small red dot on me each time. Other people can react differently, I don’t know.
You should Google image search “tick bullseye rash” to compare. It’s pretty distinctive, I feel like you would know right away from looking at the images whether your rash matched it or not. If your rash didn’t match that doesn’t completely rule it out, but it might give you some clarity.
Yael – you probably should go get tested to make sure. If you do have Lyme and the catch it now it would be a lot better than catching it later.
About 5 years ago I was in a park in Wisconsin (lived there at the time, tons of ticks!) and then went to work after. When I got home from work and took off my shirt I noticed I had a tick on my stomach. It had been on me about 10 hours. I never had one before, luckily, although I was always outdoors as a child, so I freaked out and pulled it off. The wound just would not heal. It got very very itchy, red, and irritated. It would be ok for a week and then flare up and be itchy again. I did not get the bulls eye rash although I watched for it. After a few MONTHS of this I went to the doctor (I should have gone sooner, but I’m one of those people who hates the doctor) who checked with a microscope to make sure the head wasn’t in the wound (it wasn’t). She tested me for Lyme and it was thankfully negative. She had no idea why the wound wouldn’t go away so she gave me super strong antibiotic ointment to rub on and said she figured I must be allergic to ticks. That helped but it still took over 6 months for the tick bite to fully heal and I still have a scar there. She told me I’m the first person she ever met that is allergic to ticks!
Anyway, they completely freak me out now. I camp and hike a lot and I always wear strong repellent, long pants, and a hat when I’m out. They have a tendency to hide in trees and drop down on you when you walk past which is what happened to me. I hate those little bloodsuckers.
Prevention means bug repellent, covering your skin, and vigilant bug checks when you return from outdoor activity. Not everyone gets the rash, and if you do, you haven’t prevented anything.
I grew up in Lyme territory. My sister was among the first to be diagnosed with Lyme Disease. And despite my vigilance, I never saw the tick which infected me. I was lucky to be aming the lesser percent who gets the rash.
Well yes, I expressed myself wrongly. Like GoodNamesAllTaken below wrote, I meant that chances for chronic disease are severely reduced if you notice the rash and go see a doctor (and some of you say doctors can screw this up, which is a whole different problem). My point is just that people have to know about the rash and not ignore it. (Because you don’t fill ill then it’s very easy to wave it off as nothing, especially because it disappears by itself.)
And yes, bug repellent and bug checks are the best prevention, but those suckers can come through all of this. Again, IF you happen to notice that a tick bit you (if you don’t, you can’t know anyway), watch out for the rash. That’s all I’m saying.
Lyme disease usually responds well to early, correct treatment, and is easily recognizable if you have classic symptoms, but it is not preventable. I think you meant having the devastating chronic disease that spreads is preventable? But don’t take it too lightly. Be sure your doctor knows what he or she is doing. My husband had the classic bullseye rash and went straight to the doctor, who gave him the correct antibiotic but not for long enough. I would take it straight to an expert.
Yes, that’s what I meant. I’m from a Lyme and Meningitis territory as well and I’ve known quite a few people who got the rash. But yes, the doctor must know what they’re doing. I think here they do know (some might not, as is always possible) because it is so common that probably all doctors have had patients with it.
IF you have the classic rash. . .IF
Right, BooBoo. Everyone doesn’t get it, or may get it somewhere they can’t see it
Actually, less than 50% of infected persons ever even get the bullseye rash (aka EM rash). There are no more “safe” areas, it has been found in EVERY SINGLE state and country in the world~this epidemic is EVERYWHERE. Doxycycline early enough and long enough will get most of the Lyme bacteria, but unfortunately the MAJORITY of chronic cases have other co-infections transmitted by the same tick bite. It is a tricky and nasty set of pathologies at work.
Crocuta there is unfortunately some misinformation in your post. While the bullseye rash IS a specific LD symptom, many people never have an actual bullseye rash, or even ANY rash. Unfortunately MD’s obsess on the rash, and miss other relevent information that signifies LD, such as non-specific, moving joint pain, fatigue, low grade fever, muscle pain, etc. You are EXTREMELY lucky if you get LD and catch it early enough, and there are no co-infections, and you get the right antibiotic for the right period of time. Even then, over 30% of infected individuals STILL have chronic problems-musculo-skeletal, neurological, and gastro-intestinal are the 3 most common systems affected-for years after initial infection.
I grew up on a farm and have pulled countless ticks off of myself. I’m shocked I haven’t had this to be honest. And thankful.
I grew up two towns away from Lyme, Connecticut, where the disease got its name, so the fact that I never had it (my mom did) is amazing to me. Ticks freak me out!
I grew up in a heavily forested area, got lots of tick bites, and am likewise mystified to be Lyme d free. They certainly freak me out more now than they did as a kid.
Apparently deer tick nymphs (little baby ticks) are most likely to spread Lyme, rather than full-sized adults. Maybe that has something to do with it? I’ve also pulled tons of ticks off myself, grew up spending a LOT of time in the woods around deer ticks. I also have a feeling some of us are simply immune to Lyme disease, possibly even due to early exposure?
Some peoples immune systems can fight it so it never develops, and they stay healthy. The last ILADS conference I went to had some preliminary information tnat it is actually potentially sexually tansmittable, and definitely can pass through the umbilical cord and into a fetus if the mother is infected. There is a HUGE incidence of spontaneous miscarriages due to LD, unfortunately. Mind you, MOST of the MD’s researching and specializing in forwarding new information on this awful illness either have LD themselves, or someone in their immediate family has it.
I grew up in the country and honestly picked at least one tick off myself every day. I knew Lyme disease was a thing, but didn’t know how big of a deal it was…We were taught in the crappy backwoods school that only one kind of tick (deer ticks “smaller than a period at the end of a sentence!”) carried it. This has been informative for me.
Just as an off side, I saw Avril live last summer when she opened for Backstreet Boys. I expected to enjoy it because I loved her first two CDs. She actually sucks live. My BFF that went with me is one of those fake wannabe badasses who hates artists like Avril and Taylor Swift (I can say that because she’s my BFF), and the whole time we were driving to the concert she talked shit about her…then proceeded to sing along with every song and cheer louder than EVERYONE.
I’m kind of surprised that people/ doctors don’t seem to know that much about it in the states (not judging at all, though). Here in the south of Germany we learn all about it from a very young age and we (as kids) used to check each others’ bodies after every day in spring/summer when we had been playing outside. The gravity of the disease is well known.
Hope Avril’s feeling better.
I’m Canadian, and have always lived in rural areas – my parents always checked us for ticks. It was something ingrained in us early, and was always a big deal. I’m almost overly freaked out by them now, to be honest, but I’d rather be extra cautious. We have a German Shorthair Pointer, and because of the actual ticking of her fur, I always have to obsessively check her for ticks, because just glancing doesn’t do it. At least her fur is short and I can find any ticks pretty easily – and the old, fluffier cat is now unhappily an inside cat, so she’s the main tick catcher in the house.
Same. I’m from Australia and have barely heard it mentioned. There seems to be some contention about whether it even exists here.
I”m so sorry for everyone here who has suffered, or has someone they love, suffering from Lyme. It sounds like a horrible disease and it’s just terrible when most drs don’t know the best way to treat or misdiagnose.
As for Avril, it’s awful that she got this, but in many ways it may be a bit of a blessing in disguise. Getting sick like that can remind you how fragile your health and life can be and she has been partying and drinking heavily for years. Maybe it was the wake-up call she needed to grow up a bit and start taking better care of herself and see what is really important in her life. It might even help her marriage.
Regardless, I hope she continues to feel better. I don’t wish chronic illness on anyone. My oldest son has a somewhat rare chronic disease (genetic) called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and he suffers from horrible musculo-skeletal pain and digestion issues and he’s only in his mid-20s and no cure. He looks okay on the outside, so people don’t realize the pain he’s in. Invisible illnesses are hard and chronic pain is exhausting.
wow, that is the first I have seen someone mention that. My doctor strongly suspects it based on passing a clinical exam (the hypermobile type) and I have an appt with a geneticist in july. I am sorry to hear about your son! I can totally empathize.
Another Ehlers Danlos family here – you’re right, EDS can have devastating effects, but since a lot of the fallout is ‘invisible’, others often doubt the symptoms are ‘that bad’…(((hugs))) to you both!
I think I read by a doctor it is on the rise because of the climate changes, among other reasons, in certain parts of the country. It is very scary.
A lot of people don’t realize that ticks aren’t ONLY out in the wilderness. We’re in small town Nova Scotia – I live about a 10-15 minute drive from ‘town’. Prior to that, I lived just outside of town limits. My aunt and grandmother live in the north end of town and would always say ‘oh there’s no ticks out here!’. Then their dog started getting the odd tick on her, and my aunt actually started noticing them out on the ground while she was gardening.
It was rare to find ticks in the town center, but the deer are moving in. Honestly – at night you genuinely will find deer just wandering through people’s yards in the middle of the ‘down town’ area. They’re everywhere. They seem to know it’s safer due to the hunting restrictions in rural areas – they’ve found they have a lot of great food in fancy gardens – and they’ve started spreading out away from the coyotes and likely because of the increased rural development. They’re half tame at this point. But the more the deer move in, the more deer ticks you’re going to find.
…Wow. I don’t even know what to say.
Argh, this is one hell of a disease. Hope she gets the treatment she needs. Family, friends, have it and it has ruined their daily lives.
Is anyone else bothered by the fact that her husband was off on tour while all this was going on? Kind of a jerk move in my opinion. The guy has enough money to be able to take some time off to be with his sick wife! Just confirms what I already suspected- Chad Kroeger is a turd.
It’s also weird that Chad’s name barely even comes up in the interview.
Honestly, if I got really sick I would rather have my mother around than my husband. She knows I need to be left alone most of the time whereas he NEVER lets me alone, always bringing me food and poking his head in every 15 minutes and asking if I want something… even waking me up to see if I want to eat. Then gets hurt when I can’t eat his offerings which is usually something out of a can when I home make everything myself. I would totally sent him away on a tour if I could when I am sick and get my mom to move in.
Maybe he’s like that and she’s grateful to have him out of the house.
@ Tessy. You are being kind in thinking that Chad Kroeger is that thoughtful when there are several things that have shown in the past that his is the opposite. I got to go with MSat on this one.
I also believe that Avril will do a lot more better once she gets rid of about 175 lbs of turd.
I got Lymes 2 years ago and thankfully my skin reacted dramatically to the bite, before I could even see the bullseye I got cellulitis in the area and it was so bad I went to the ER thinking maybe it was a poisonous spider bite. My husband was the one actually who asked for the lyme test (ER visit round 2) and it surprised everyone by coming back positive. They had me on two major antibiotics for both the Lyme and the cellulitis and that combo did the trick, I never had other symptoms I am aware of. I still count myself lucky to have sensitive skin that reacted so fast, something I was never happy about before.
I just don’t understand the reluctance to consider or test for this disease. One of the local teenage girls got sick with lyme, and the doctors in BC refused to test for it or treat it. It went into her brain and she wound up in a wheelchair and couldn’t remember anything that happened 5 minutes previously. They occasionally put a story into the local paper on how she is, and she’s making a slow recovery with over a year of treatment because it was left so long. They had to go to the US at their expense, the family had to sell their house and everything else they owned so she could get treated and so they are always fundraising. Its a very cruel system when the family loses everything because a member gets sick. I think the attitude of the medical system is slowly changing here, but the way they have treated people should be considered malpractice.
This is my favourite site for alternative treatments and I see they also have info about lyme here.
http://www.earthclinic.com/cures/lyme_disease.html
I realize this isn’t the case in Canada, but here in the U.S. the answer is that before the ACA was passed, this kind of testing might not have been covered by health insurance. Doctors got used to refusing to do tests like this unless they were very sure they would come up positive, or had absolutely no idea what it could be after ruling out many other things, because they knew the bills for the patient could get astronomically high. Fortunately this has changed.
@heatherh, you’re lucky the cellulitis didn’t escalate. I spent 10 days in the hospital this past October with a case of cellulitis that turned to sepsis. It all started with me messing with a very small cyst on my neck. Harmless I thought until two days later when my neck blew up beyond belief and was red as hell. I had the shakes and barely remember taking my son to school. I went into my appt with my ENT three hours early and thank God I did. He had me go to the ER immediately and before I knew it I was going into shock and had seven IV lines in me as they desperately pumped antibiotics into me. I was dying and didn’t even know it. I didn’t know the extent of what had happened until I began seeing specialists in my follow up exams. I’ve been told multiple times how lucky I am to have survived. My recovery is still ongoing but I am world’s away from where I was in October. It effected everything and my body was completely out of whack. I only recently found out from one doctor that my kidneys had started to fail. Thankfully they returned to normal function. I count my blessings everyday, but this whole episode left me with quite a bit of anxiety. Your health means EVERYTHING. I feel for you and know how frightening a health scare can be. Good wishes to you and to Avril on her recovery.
I am a Licensed Acupuncturist living in Houston. LD is one of my specialties. It is a devastating, chronic, relapse/remission disease that is more often than NOT misdiagnosed due to medical lack of awareness and, frankly, knowledge. Ticks are natures dirty needles: they can transmit MANY diseases IMMEDIATELY upon biting, and fewer than 50% of infected people show the bullseye rash most commonly assoc. with b. burgdorferi (LD). To complicate matters, LD is unfortunately difficult to test for due to how it impacts the immune system and the rest of the body, and a lack of specific and sènsitive lab tests. LD hides in the body, using cysts and biofilms to encapsulate for long dormancy periods which make it mostly impervious for anything except long term antibiotic therapy. It is a slow cycling organism, able to hide in the body and mimic many diseases. If someone has chronic health/autoimmune disorders and “wanders” from diagnosis to diagnosis, you can just about bet it is LD. ILADS.org has timely, relevent further information. LD is the fastest growing silent epidemic, and is EVERYWHERE in the USA and the entire world.
Thank you for the info, I’ve been getting acupuncture for a genetic condition I have and it’s been amazing. It’s done me more good in 3 months than years of western medicine did.
I wish I could contact you for more information. I am older now, but when I was 24, I lived in a semi rural area and had three tick bites. I have been sick ever since, with a compromised immune system, and I believe lyme-induced arthritis all over my body, and in chronic pain. I had no knowledge of lyme disease back then, and I now can’t get anyone to help me with it.
I am currently about to monitor several LD patients starting the Salt/Vit C protocol, and also was shown an interesting study where plain old Claritin has been shown to be very effective. Claritin impacts something in manganese that flat out kills the spirochete.
It now hits its peak in June and July and is discovered from Maine
to Virginia along the East Coast of the United States.