Singer was bedridden for 5 months, has Lyme disease

Apr 1, 2015 13:08 GMT  ·  By

It’s been almost half a year since Canadian singer Avril Lavigne has been seen in public, with her last appearance being in Las Vegas, at a party in her honor. Last December, she told one worried fan on social media that she’d been sick, asking her to “pray” for her.

The latest issue of People magazine solves the mystery of Avril’s secret ailment: she’s been sick for a very long time and has been bedridden for almost 5 months. Doctors were finally able to diagnose her with Lyme disease, with the good news being that she’s almost entirely recovered now.

“I thought I was dying”

Avril says that even in September, when she hit Vegas with her friends to celebrate her 30th birthday, she was feeling very under the weather. In fact, she admits in the interview, all she could think of was how badly she wanted to “leave and go lie in a bed.”

The worst part of it was that she didn’t know what was wrong with her, and neither did all the doctors who had seen her until that moment. But she had no more energy and was in pain all the time, and no one could tell her what was happening.

After several months like this, she was diagnosed with a severe case of Lyme disease. She reckons she was bitten by a tick last spring. She’s been recovering at her home in Ontario, with plenty of help from husband Chad Kroeger and her mom, who moved in with her for this purpose.

“I had no idea a bug bite could do this,” she says. “I was bedridden for five months. I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying. There were definitely times I couldn't shower for a full week because I could barely stand. It felt like having all your life sucked out of you.”

Avril is back, almost

She is 80 percent recovered, she says. When her health improved, she also started working on new music, and in between that and keeping up with the fans on social media (she says she was very touched by their messages of love and support), she’s very eager to come back into the spotlight.

She won’t be doing it empty-handed, of course: this month, Avril is putting out a new single called “Fly,” which will be in support of the Special Olympics, the 2015 edition.

She won’t say if she has more surprises for fans up her sleeve, but she admits that she missed interacting with them and having them bond over her music.

One thing is certain for Avril after this nasty experience, which she calls a “wake-up call”: she will never take anything in life for granted and will strive to live it to the max from now on.