Lauryn’s Story

By Jennifer Russell, Executive Director of Illinois Lyme Association

In 2012, my daughter became extremely ill in first grade. She came home from school one day, and I heard the bus, but she did not come in. I went outside and found her lying in the driveway. She was too fatigued to make it into the house, and it seemed as though her legs had stopped working.

Lauryn Russell shares her story with the crowd during the 3rd annual golf outing at TPC Deere Run on September 23, 2023. 

We were in and out of local hospitals, trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Her white blood cell counts were extremely low, and they told us they thought she had leukemia. They ruled that out, eventually, but she continued to have a fever for over a month, and her lymph nodes were swollen constantly. The doctors kept telling us it was probably a virus, and it would just work itself out.

When she didn’t get better, they removed her tonsils and adenoids, thinking they were holding in infection, even though the blood tests never showed anything. Over the course of a three-year journey, she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, leukopenia, Ehlers-Danlos hypermobility, and many more misdiagnoses. By the grace of God, three bullseye rashes appeared under her armpits. But when I took her to several doctors, they all denied that it could be Lyme disease because the bullseye did not fit the profile of the illness.

After three years of struggling to find out what was attacking her little body, our dog suddenly became ill. He began dragging his legs and crying in pain. I picked him up and noticed a bullseye rash on his belly; it looked similar to the ones Lauryn had developed under her armpits. I took him to the vet, and he was diagnosed with Lyme.

With this new piece of information, Lauryn was finally diagnosed with late-stage Lyme disease. It was a long, hard struggle. She lost her short-term memory and had an exceedingly difficult time trying to get through school. Many days, she could not get out of bed — her body hurt, her knees were painful, and she was so very tired. She was sleeping 16 hours a day. Some days, putting one foot in front of the other was extremely difficult.

Bitten by a little tick that no one thought to test for, even though, looking back, all the signs were there. Lauryn was undiagnosed for three years and was in treatment for four years to try to get her life back. She has been in remission since 2016 and became a high school honor roll student. Her faith and love for playing her guitar have really helped in giving her strength to face a each new day.