A family that is driven to recover

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: Sept. 2, 2017

A family that is driven to recover

After years of health problems, the Pollnows are starting to turn it around

By NICHOLAS DETTMANN

ndettmann@conleynet.com 262-306-5043

FARMINGTON — Jacob Pollnow is surprisingly confident behind the wheel.

That is according to his mother, Val Pollnow.

“It’s something he’s wanted to do for years,” said Val of her 18-year-old son.

Unfortunately ongoing health issues spanning more than seven years prevented Jacob from getting behind the wheel of a car sooner. He didn’t do much of anything.

When he was 11 years old, Jacob was diagnosed with Lyme disease. That was after nearly a yearlong search to figure out what was wrong with the boy who loved taekwondo.

“He went from 10 to 18 basically bedridden,” Val said. Jacob’s health was just one of several issues the family has endured over the last several years. Mixed in with Jacob’s struggles was his sister, Katherine, also being diagnosed with Lyme disease, and Val being diagnosed with breast cancer.

She is in remission.

To help with mounting medical expenses, Trinity Lutheran Church, 140 N. Seventh Ave., West Bend, will host a benefit concert to help out the Pollnows and two other local families — the Vandeheis and the Yorks.

The concert, along with food, a raffle, art and auctions, is 1 p.m. Sept. 17.

“We are so blessed. I can’t even tell you,” Val said. “There’s so many people that are good to us, strangers.”

Jacob is smiling again and that is a blessing for Val after years of seeing Jacob in pain. It’s because of that she is not tense or nervous to see her son driving.

“It’s so good to have normal anxiety instead of ‘When is my kid going to get better or how are they going to get through the day?’” Val said.

For once, life seems closer to normal.

Jacob was not available for an interview because of a dip in his health, which, Val said, is normal.

“It feels amazing,” Jacob wrote in a note. “It was really incredible, but also a little bit scary. It’s a change, even though it’s a positive change.”

That change started following a long visit at the doctor’s office one day, then a trip to the grocery store.

Val talked about her struggles after she was asked how her day was. The bagger was saddened and bought Val a bouquet of flowers. Then, on her way to her car, the bagger came out of the store and rushed to get Val’s attention.

“She came running out and said, ‘Wait, wait. Your angels are here,’” Val said.

She was introduced to a couple that had a similar experience.

“I met this woman whose daughter had been sick

for six years with Lyme disease,” Val said. “She went to this clinic in Kansas and within a year and a half she was fully recovered. So she sent me the book, talked to me and encouraged me.”

They went to the clinic for the first time in October and went back in April.

“When we got back from Kansas, Jacob felt a little bit better for about a week then he got a bug and then felt better again,” Val said. “When he got better from that bug he was like, ‘Mom, I think I feel better than I was before.’

“All of a sudden he started being able to do more school work, things started clicking. He just started feeling better.”

On Father’s Day, Jacob was running around, outside and playing with his cousins.

“It was amazing,” Val said. “Even more amazing he said, ‘I don’t feel any worse than I did the day before.’” Then, Jacob went to Rhinelander with family and went fishing.

“It was a miracle,” Val said.

Jacob has hope. He wants to go to college at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He hopes to drive himself to class one day.

“Sitting next to my 18-year-old feeling anxious about him driving felt pretty good,” Val said, laughing.

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Controversy, complication surrounding Lyme disease

Jacob and Katherine still need the treatments. They went back to the clinic last month. The clinic charges $1,000 per day each and the visits are typically at least a week long, if not more, for both.

That’s on top of the years and years of doctors visits, most of which weren’t covered by insurance, Val said.

“When he was 10 years old, he was in a play and contracted mono and just never got better from it,” she said.

It took the diligence of one doctor to finally figure out what was the problem.

Call it a Mother’s instinct as Val knew something was wrong with Jacob.

“He was an active kid,” she said. “He loves taekwondo, was always planning to have groups of kids come over and have ballgames in the backyard until all he could do was lay in bed.”

Jacob was previously tested for Lyme disease.

“The first doctor we went to did an ELISA (test) and said it’s not Lyme disease and I was like, ‘Oh good. Whew. I don’t have to worry about that one,’” Val said.

Dr. Brian Wolter, physician with Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin at the West Bend Health Center office, said Lyme disease, in most cases, isn’t difficult to diagnose. But when there is a struggle to diagnose it, he said in most cases, it’s too early in the illness and that’s why a false-negative will come up.

“With many different conditions, it takes a long time to figure those things out,” Wolter said.

According to Wolter, Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can cause a host of symptoms, including a rash and fatigue. Late-stage Lyme disease can include irregular heart rhythm, inflammation of the heart, muscle and joint pain, and tingling.

In a way, it was blessing for the Pollnows once they learned what the problem was with Jacob.

“I was relieved because we finally have a diagnosis,” Val said.

But she and her family quickly learned the issue was more problematic going forward, especially with when Jacob was diagnosed.

“The CDC has yet to acknowledge that late-stage Lyme disease is real,” Val said. “And that acknowledgement means insurance companies don’t have to cover it.”

Wolter said the reason for that is it’s not entirely definitive that a person with symptoms of what he said is called “post-Lyme disease syndrome” is indeed Lyme disease.

“That is a big controversy,” Wolter said. “No one can decide if it exists or not; it’s tough to link. It doesn’t mean you’re infected by the disease; it’s not a linear thing.”

Val said progress has been made as she’s helped push for change.

“But until the CDC acknowledges it, it’s not going to get where we need it,” Val said. “Eventually they will, it’s just going to take a long time.”

She added, “When (her kids) get better, I want to make a difference.”