“He has an incredibly high pain tolerance,” the former Bachelorette said
Trista Sutter is giving an update on husband Ryan Sutter’s battle with Lyme disease.
The former Bachelorette, 51, appeared on an episode of The Most Dramatic Podcast Ever with Chris Harrison and said Ryan, 49, has been doing “better.”
“He definitely has a lot of ups and downs still and really would like to feel better at least most of the time. He says he’s about 80%,” she said. “I would go to his doctor’s appointments with him because he is so incredibly humble. So he’s like, ‘Oh I don’t want to complain about whatever’s going on with me,’ even if it’s really significant.”
“I would tell his doctors, ‘You don’t understand, he has an incredibly high pain tolerance.’ If it was me that was going through what he’s going through, I would be bedridden every single day and maybe even hospitalized,” she continued. “He is able to get through this because he’s freaking superhuman. I don’t understand it.”
Lyme disease is a potentially debilitating infection caused by bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi that is transmitted through the bite of an infected blacklegged tick.
Early stage Lyme symptoms include headaches, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, fatigue and sometimes a rash that has many different shapes including one which may look like a bullseye centered on the tick bite. Late stage Lyme symptoms can include paralysis, agonizing joint pain, neurological problems, severe headaches, problems with memory, hearing, and vision, inflammation of the brain, and inflammation of the heart.
Related: Ryan Sutter Says He’s ‘Doing Ok’ amid Lyme Disease Diagnosis: ‘Finding Value in My Own Suffering’
Trista said that Ryan will typically “push through” his symptoms, so when he actually does admit that he’s not feeling well, “it’s very scary.”
“I have never understood it but I’m grateful because had he not had the kind of tolerance he has, it would’ve been even harder. And it still is,” she said on the podcast.
Ryan previously told PEOPLE that he first started experiencing symptoms of the disease in March 2020, feeling “really really drained” despite being a physically fit and active dad to daughter Blakesley, 14, and son Maxwell, 15.
“My body hurt, I had zero energy and even getting up from the couch seemed impossible. And then, it just started spiraling rapidly,” he recalled.
The couple consulted with doctors including a functional medicine practitioner and a rheumatologist, who discovered high levels of antinuclear antibodies (which can indicate an autoimmune disease). Yet after doctors ruled out cancer, lupus and a host of other diseases, “we were back at square one,” said Trista. “It was so frustrating.”
Related: Trista and Ryan Sutter Talk About His Horrific Battle with Lyme Disease: ‘It Took Over My Life’
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Meanwhile, Ryan was sleeping up to 16 hours a day and the months of constant discomfort were weighing on him. “It took over my life,” he admitted. “I’d always felt like I could persevere through anything. But I couldn’t persevere through this. I never got to the point where I thought I’d rather be dead. But I could sympathize with people who would rather kill themselves than live through something.”
Added Trista: “Ryan is our everyday hero, so to see him feel like crap, that just weighs on you.”
Finally, thanks to Dr. Jill Carnahan, MD, Ryan’s doctor and a specialist in functional medicine, he was diagnosed with Lyme disease in May 2021. Ryan also was determined to have mold in his body (likely from his years as a firefighter), which Carnahan said weakens the immune system, thus causing dormant infections to pop up.
In order to manage, Ryan said he found an unconventional protocol that he believes is working for him, including infrared sauna therapy, which some claim can help detoxify the body, and bee venom therapy, in which he stings himself with honeybees three times every other day to “weaken the bacteria.”
”The tide is turning, and I’m feeling better,” said Ryan.
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