Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 14, 1993 TAG: 9312140090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Spell, diagnosed with Lyme disease after years of fighting mysterious symptoms, has found some solace in humor. It wells up inside her even when she is short of breath, when she is struggling with arthritic pain in her knees and hands, when she is suffering from temporary lapses of memory.
Now she can laugh about the time she drove down to the local 7-Eleven and forget her way home. She remembers lingering, leafing through magazines, frantically going through mental exercises trying to remember her street, her husband's work number, anything that would trigger her memory.
The disease, often misunderstood by doctors and misdiagnosed as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, "definitely takes away a lot from your life," Spell said. "You have to let some of your pride go."
The once-energetic and independent young woman no longer drives, fearing the onset of the memory loss that attacked her in the convenience store.
She has ridden the bus to the mall, but found herself easily confused and turned around.
Where once she took for granted her ability to keep a "mental" list of duties at her job as a Roanoke Memorial Hospital employment specialist, she can no longer leave the house for any length of time.
Most of the time she rests, sleeping "like the dead," she said. But she falls easily, and her husband, Allen Spell, worries about her when he is working at his job as a certified public accountant.
"There are times I know she is home," he said, "and the answering machine goes on."
A year and a half ago, Sherri Spell was officially diagnosed with Lyme disease by a West Virginia physician. She has had symptoms much of her life - bouts of flu, aching joints, extreme fatigue - and now believes it was passed to her at birth from her mother, who also suffers from the disease. She has two brothers who also have the disease.
"I have been diagnosed with mononucleosis at least 20 times in my life," she said. She has yet to find a physician in the Roanoke area familiar with Lyme disease.
Over the past year, her symptoms have worsened. She has Lyme arthritis and muscle and bone pain so severe that "to stand on my leg feels like it is splintering." She has fallen several times and been hospitalized once to have her gall bladder removed.
She is now on a needle-less system of intravenous drugs and uses a lung inhaler to help her breathing.
Despite the progressive nature of the disease, Spell is determined to make as much of her life as possible.
Because her disease is progressive, her husband and friends are raising money to fund a specially trained dog to help her perform tasks such as picking up dropped items, providing support going up stairs and retrieving the phone.
Insurance won't pick up the $3,000 price tag for the animal, and the Spells cannot afford the cost alone.
The Arthritis Foundation has agreed to collect and distribute the money, which also makes contributions tax-deductible, said Lucy Lee, a friend who is acting as unofficial fund-raiser.
Carol Willoughby, a Roanoke woman whose dog, Booker, was named the nation's No. 1 service dog in 1988, said the decision to get a service dog is one of the most liberating steps a disabled person can take.
"It increases your independence and gives you so much self-confidence," said Willoughby, who suffers from crippling rheumatoid arthritis. "When you get that increased feeling of confidence, you get that control back in your life."
"It's almost magical what it does," she continued. "People become more outgoing. It takes your mind off your pain, and it just puts you on a different level."
Trainer Laurie Schultz has already accepted Spell into her program and assessed her level of disability in order to choose the right dog for her. Willoughby said service dogs tend to be golden retrievers or Labrador retrievers, although Schultz has trained an Australian sheep dog and German shepherd.
Schultz, who has been training dogs since 1986, will spend six months training the dog at her Teammates Training Center in Julian, N.C., then come to Roanoke and work with Spell and the dog together for about a week.
The process takes more than simply handling over a leash, she said. "I have got to make sure they are capable of handling a dog and keeping it under control," she said.
"They have got to work at making this thing work," she said. "That's the thing I try to make people realize. They are not a push-button dog, they are not a computerized dog."
Schultz was involved in the training of Willoughby's dog and has trained about 10 others for children and adults in the Roanoke area. Her specialities are service dogs, hearing dogs and social companion dogs.
For Spell, learning about the service dog program turned out to be a "godsend," she said.
"I had kind of put my life on hold until I got rid of the Lyme," Spell said. "Now I have to learn to live with the disease."
(To make a contribution to the Spell service dog fund, make checks payable to Arthritis Foundation with the memo indicating "designated gift." Mail checks to: Arthritis Foundation, c/o Lucy Lee, 515 Darwin Road, S.W. Roanoke, Va. 24014. Contributions are tax-deductible.)
by CNB