Shania Twain describes Lyme disease symptoms: 'I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage'

Shania Twain revealed in a Netflix documentary that she frequently 'blacked out' on stage and feared she would never sing again due to Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness.

She previously talked about her Lyme disease diagnosis and how it has affected her vocal cords, but she shares new details about her health issues during live performances in the 2000s in the documentary film.

The tour lasted from September 2003 to July 2004 and Ella Twain was infected while she was on tour for her hit album 'Up!'. 'As we were coming to the end of our tour, she was out riding a horse when she bit me with a tick, and it infected her with Lyme disease,' she told Twain in the documentary titled 'Not Just A Girl.'

“Before I was diagnosed, I was very dizzy on stage, losing my balance and afraid of falling,” Ella Twain recalled. There were these very, very brief blackouts, but they happened frequently, every 30 seconds or every minute,” she said.

A black-legged tick carrying Lyme disease bites humans and transmits the disease to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In addition to fever, headache, and fatigue, a characteristic 'bulls-eye' rash is characteristic of the disease. According to the CDC, Lyme disease is most commonly treated by taking antibiotics for a few weeks, but if left untreated, it can negatively affect the joints, heart, and nervous system.

Infected with Lyme disease, Twain said her voice was 'never the same' and that she struggled with breath control. Mark Twain made a statement: 'I thought she had lost her voice forever. I thought that was the end of it.'

He said that in an interview with the UK TV show 'Loose Women' in 2020, Twain stated that doctors only realized the changes in his voice were caused by Lyme disease after seven years.

Lyme disease 'can cause inflammation and direct nerve damage to the larynx, resulting in paralysis of the vocal cords,' according to the Mayo Clinic. His career ended when he was diagnosed with a vocal cord disorder in 2011, Twain previously told TODAY.

The experience was devastating,' he said in a March 2020 Sunday TODAY interview. The whole thing made me very, very sad, to the point where... It seemed like there was no other choice but to accept it.'

Despite undergoing several 'invasive' throat surgeries, Twain's voice did not return to its original sound. However, she did not give up and, with the support of other musicians such as Lionel Richie and David Foster, she eventually returned to music.

'After trying really hard, I was able to take my voice to a certain place,' Twain, who now resides in Las Vegas, said in the documentary. 'I'm not getting my old voice back. I'm fine. I like my new voice,' he said during an interview in 2020.

source: today