Overcoming Agony of 14 Years of an Undetected Disease and Seeking Her Moment
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJAN. 11, 2014
Sometimes, in the middle of a halfpipe run, the skier Angeli Vanlaanen would become so dizzy and disoriented that she could not figure out where to land.
“Scary,” she said.
Scarier still was that doctors could not determine why she would suddenly have blurred vision. Or why she was always tired and frequently had headaches.
They tested her for routine illnesses and found nothing.
And then for things like a brain tumor and multiple sclerosis — “the really scary stuff,” she said.
Turns out, she had Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by a tick. She was bitten as a child, and the disease went undetected for 14 years.
Now, after going through an arduous treatment program that kept her away from competing for three years, Vanlaanen, 28, is back to her hard-charging ways. She is chasing a spot on the United States Olympic team in ski halfpipe, an event making its debut at the Sochi Games in Russia next month.
She even made a film about
living with the disease, titled “LymeLight.” In one of the more poignant scenes in the 30-minute film, Vanlaanen talks about
her lifelong struggle to find out what was wrong, saying: “I feel like me again. This is Angi. I like to be productive. I like to do things. I don’t want to be in a bed, sleeping all day, days in a row, not out there doing my life’s dreams.”
She then wiped away the tears before smiling.
“It was a long road to recovery emotionally,” she said, “and I went through a roller coaster of all the unknowns.”
Vanlaanen says she believes she knows about
the time when she was bitten: She was 10 and spending time in Wisconsin when she emerged from the woods one day covered in ticks. Her mother and aunt extracted them as best they could.
“Who knows how many were on me that summer,” she said.
Her symptoms began as dizziness and a chronic sinus infection. She also had severe headaches, muscle spasms, back and neck pain, and digestive difficulty. She was always tired, so much so that after a ride up a chair lift, she had to rest.
No one could figure out why. Some doctors suggested it was all in her head.
“That was quite traumatic and very hard for me,” said Vanlaanen, who grew up in Bellingham, Wash., skiing on the slopes at Mount Baker. “When I graduated from high school, I decided to just live my life and deal with these symptoms. For the most part, I would hide them from people, because I was looking to move forward.”
Her career was flourishing, too; she was shooting scenes for ski movies and competing at events such as the Winter X Games. All the while, she physically felt horrible, she said.
“My pain tolerance just went up,” she said. “But the neurological symptoms, the vertigo, just having no balance, that’s scary.
“I was trying to keep going since there wasn’t an answer. Everyone thought mentally I couldn’t handle the pressure or that I was lazy because I was tired all the time.”
Finally, in 2009, her aunt — after seeing a documentary on Lyme disease — encouraged her to check and see if that was a possibility.
It was, and in November of that year, she went through extensive treatment.
“Your symptoms get worse until they get better,” she said. “But I really did attack Lyme disease like a new trick in skiing. I had that same mentality.”
It was far from an easy road back, though, taking about
two and a half years before she was free of her symptoms.
“I went through dark times the first year, angry about
being sick,” she said. “I was like, What if I hadn’t been bit by a tick? What would I have been able to achieve?
“Once I accepted my reality, that these are my cards, I found some positive solutions.”
Like making a film to spread awareness of her disease.
“My goal was always to get back to skiing,” she said. “At times, I wasn’t sure if it was possible. It wasn’t a for sure thing that I’d be able to return.
“But everything is going great.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/12/sports/olympics/overcoming-agony-of-14-years-of-an-undetected-disease-and-seeking-her-moment.html?_r=0
Post Edited (BarnGurl) : 3/4/2015 6:47:09 PM (GMT-7)