KAUKAUNA, Wis. (WFRV) – A blistering 103-degree fever on a cool Friday night in October 2020 hit Kathy Rueckert out of the blue. Then 65 years old, the former ThedaCare administrator was healthy and active, walking five miles every day and playing pickleball competitively every week.
But her active lifestyle was about to be disrupted for months, and her life changed forever.
Rueckert could not shake the fever, and after several days, had to go to urgent care. Doctors thought it might have been an ear infection. Despite amoxicillin, other medications, and multiple trips back to urgent care, it would not resolve.
“The medical community was kind of perplexed by it,” Rueckert said.
Then came Nov. 18, 2020. After blood tests, experts finally came to a conclusion. Rueckert had low platelets, needed a transfusion, and it turned out a parasite was essentially eating her blood cells.
Babesiosis, transmitted by the bite of a deer tick, was found in her bloodstream. Extremely uncommon, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services records fewer than 100 cases in the entire state each year.
“They will tell you to watch for a bullseye, but there was nothing,” Rueckert said. “So this deer tick could have been just a small baby deer tick, but for me to try to find that on me—and when I got it—I have no idea.”
And that was only one of two incredibly rare and serious conditions Rueckert was battling.
“That was on Nov. 18. I went into the ER by myself—that was during COVID, so no one could come with me. And I didn’t come out until Feb. 18,” Rueckert said. “That day I went in, I was experiencing numbness in the foot, and it had started to progress to Guillain-Barré. In between there, I had gotten a mild case of COVID at the end of October. So I had what I would call a trifecta that year.”
It is unclear what caused the Guillain-Barré syndrome for Rueckert, but it could have been triggered by the tick bite, medications she was on for the fever, her case of COVID-19, or a combination of the three.
That trifecta paid out to be a rollercoaster of a hospital stay for Rueckert, with far greater downs than ups.
“I was vented twice, then I was trached, I was on a feeding tube, I was down to 82 pounds, I came home a quadriplegic and then had to work my way back up,” Rueckert said. “It was very scary and lonely, especially when you are ventilated and paralyzed and can’t talk.”
Rueckert praises ThedaCare medical staff for getting her through her time in the hospital, and then her husband, friends, and therapists once out. Working to get her mobility back was a challenging and uncertain time, but her faith kept her grounded on hoping to enjoy the small things in life that so many take for granted.
“Please let me stand and look out the window instead of sitting in a wheelchair. Please let me play pickleball just one more time,” Rueckert would ask God.
Less than five months after being discharged from the hospital, Rueckert was walking with a cane, and within the year, she was back to playing pickleball—her favorite sport—competitively on her own.
“I believe I’m probably 85% to where I was before and am just grateful for what I can do,” Rueckert said of her recovery. “I did not think I’d ever get to this spot today.”
Rueckert is still doing physical therapy each week. Her balance is off at times, and muscles are not quite what they used to be. She is thankful to be where she is but still pushed to be 100%.
Rueckert still regularly goes to appointments to make sure the babesiosis is under control. While it is not affecting her, it technically is still in her system, and her antigen levels continue to be monitored regularly as a result.
Despite the immense adversity and health struggles an unknown tick bite likely caused her, Rueckert has no fear of getting back outdoors, as she frequently hikes and bikes outside.
“I don’t have a fear of it, I don’t like fear to control my life. However, I’m a little more cautious.”
Treating clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin, wearing insect repellent, walking in the center of trails, wearing long clothes to cover as much skin as possible, and checking your body for ticks after coming indoors are all tips Rueckert follows and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend.
While grateful for the support and care she has received from medical professionals, she hopes there are some pieces to her journey that could be different for others. The first is going back to those uncertainty-filled weeks before she had a diagnosis, as Rueckert hopes professionals add another question to the intake survey.
“I’m usually the one that does all the research when my friends get sick, but because I was so sick I didn’t research it,” she said. “And I was talking to my sons about it. They said, ‘One of the intake questions should have been, Are you an active outdoors person?’”
For patients who are paralyzed or do not have the ability to speak, Rueckert hopes there are improvements that can be made for patients communicating with nurses and doctors. She was given a beeper remote in the hospital bed, but if that fell on the floor, she would have no line of communication to staff until it was placed back on her lap.
“I’d like to be an advocate for tick bites, babesiosis, Guillain-Barré, and get more resources,” she said.
Her goal one day is for a website or organization to be created to help patients post-hospital stay, to make it easier to connect with each other and find resources.
Rueckert has wasted no time in finding patients like her, volunteering her time at ThedaCare to talk with rare patients affected by tick bites and Guillain-Barré.
“You have to have a positive attitude. You have to be a fighter. You cannot give up. You have to find that inner strength,” Rueckert said.
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She also realizes how the disease has changed her—not just physically, but in being able to see things once hidden in others.
“It’s changed my outlook to appreciate every day. Appreciate every person and what they bring to the table. There are so many hidden gems inside a person that you don’t know until something happens.”
