Colfax senior battles Lyme disease

by Marlys Kruger

Although most high school students just assume they will be able to participate in typical activities such as music, dances, sports and even sitting in a classroom taking a test, Colfax senior Kristen Spadgenske is not one of those students.

Kristen has been dealing with chronic Lyme disease after being diagnosed sometime in her middle school days, and the medical treatment which included a lot of antibiotics prescribed for her have not eliminated any of the pain or symptoms from the disease. In fact, the disease has continued to get worse and has caused damage to her kidneys, liver and eyesight along with causing terrible migraines and extreme outbreaks of hives.

According to Kristen’s mother Janelle, both Kristen and her older sister Kaitlyn were diagnosed several years ago with Lyme after having typical body aches and pain associated with the disease. Neither remembers finding a tick on their body, which is the most common cause of the disease. But after dealing with doctors at both the Mayo Clinic and Marshfield Clinic, the antibiotic treatments helped Kaitlyn somewhat but Kristen not at all.

“Kristen was so sick she couldn’t function in any setting, especially in school,” Janelle said. “She was down to 93 pounds at one point and we had to keep her at home. A year ago this past Christmas, she was in so much pain I took her to the emergency room and they sent her home with some medication that really didn’t help. I had gotten the number of an acupuncturist in Eau Claire who was known to deal with Lyme patients and he told us to meet him at his office right away. He worked on her for three hours and finally got her pain under control. We have started regular treatments with him and have been using natural supplements as well as changing her diet which has helped a bit. But the doctor wants her to go to a specialist in Texas for a complete 30 day treatment they believe will help her. Our insurance does not cover any of the natural treatments which they call non-medical so we were at our wits end trying to figure out what we could do for her.”

Friends and relatives came to the rescue as they have planned a benefit for Kristen Sunday, April 27 at the Veteran’s Center in Menomonie from 11:00-5:00.Money raised will go towards intensive treatment at the specialty clinic in Texas.

“Kristen did not want any attention drawn to her or anyone feeling sorry for her,” Janelle said. “It took us a long time to get her to agree to this benefit. We finally convinced her it was the only way we could get her to Texas and hopefully get her well. It is the hardest thing for a mother to see her daughter suffer when you can’t do anything about it. There are so many things doctors don’t know about Lyme disease. One of the doctors at Mayo Clinic asked if I had ever had it and I told him I had before I was pregnant with either of the girls. He thinks maybe I could have passed it on through pregnancy to both of them. That is a really difficult thing for me to deal with but there are just a lot of unanswered questions about Lyme,” she added.

Kristen has been keeping up with her schoolwork at home on the computer and hopes to be able to go through the graduation ceremony with her classmates in May.

“The school district and principal John Dachel have been so good to us,” Janelle said. “As soon as they saw her medical records and realized how sick she was they made arrangements for her to work at home. We’ll see how she feels on graduation day because she has good days and bad days so we hope she will be having a good day on May 16,” she concluded.