Avril Lavigne has Lyme Disease; 12 Facts About the Illness

SUNRISE, FL - DECEMBER 20: Avril Lavigne performs onstage during Y100's Jingle Ball 2013 Presented by Jam Audio Collection at BB&T Center on December 20, 2013 in Miami, Florida. (Photo : Getty Images) 

Avril Lavgine has confirmed that she had Lyme disease and was bedridden for almost five months. "I had no idea a bug bite could do this, I was bedridden for five months," the Canadian singer told People magazine. 

The punk princess had been sick for months before she visited Las Vegas with her friends in September 2014 to celebrate her 30th birthday. She said that she couldn't take any food and felt sick throughout the trip. When her friends asked what was wrong with her, she couldn't tell because she didn't know the answer herself.

Lavgine was then diagnosed positive for Lyme disease and spent months bedridden at her home in Ontario with her mom and her husband, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger.

 
"I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't talk and I couldn't move. I thought I was dying," said Lavgine. "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."

When the hashtags "PrayForAvril" and "GetWellSoonAvril" went viral on Twitter in December 2014, Lavgine seemingly confirmed she was sick when she replied to her fans with a simple "thank you". She then wrote on Twitter on December 7, "I feel bad because I haven't been able to say anything to the fans to let them no (sic) why I've been absent," reported Daily News.

Not much is known about Lyme Disease, so we've listed 12 facts about the illness

1. About 30,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease every year, notes USA Today, based on a CDC report.
2. Majority of cases are reported from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
3. Lyme disease is caused by bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi
4. The infectious bacterium is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks.
5. It takes around 3 to 30 days for the signs and symptoms to appear after the insect bite.
6. The disease is usually reported from June to August, peaking just after the mid-May to mid-July period.
7. The symptoms of Lyme disease include headache, fatigue, fever, and erythema migrans, a type of skin rash.
8. If the disease is not diagnosed and treated early, the bacterial infection could spread to joints, the heart, and the nervous system, according to CDC.
9. Arthritis is common among people suffering from Lyme disease.
10. Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 at Lyme located in the coastal region of West Dorset among children diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, according to Web MD.
11. Interestingly the infectious bacteria are found on deer and are carried by ticks from deer to humans.
12. Dog ticks and wood ticks don't spread Lyme disease because they don't carry the infectious bacterium.

Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne Are Reportedly Headed for Divorce

Sad news for fans of hot love, classic tunes, and correctly chosen "looks": it seems Avril Lavigne and husband Chad Kroeger (from Nickelback—you know him) are headed for divorce.

This Seductive Nickelback Selfie Is the Douchiest Video Ever

Erik von Markovik, also known as Mystery, is "famous" in the seduction community for his… Read more gawker.​com Just a few months after Chad gave Avril a gigantic ring for the couple's one-year wedding anniversary, Us Weekly reports Chad "has been going around L.A. and telling people that they're divorcing." Hmm. "We're divorcing!" he, presumably, shouts at passing cars. "We're divorcing," he whispers into the speaker at the In-N-Out drive-thru.

Avril Lavigne, Chad Kroeger Have Super Secret Wedding For Some Reason

Avril Lavigne and the guy from Nickelback got married this weekend in France at a location so… Read more gawker The rumor is supported by the fact that Avril Lavigne has deleted a tweet—referencing that gigantic ring—that used to say, "I still can't believe my 1 year anniversary gift. 17 carat emerald cut. Wow. I love my hubby." Ah! What does it mean? Does she not love her hubby anymore, or has she simply come around to finally believing the one-year anniversary gift? Hmmm.

Us Weekly's evidence doesn't stop there—a supposed friend of Lavigne reportedly told the magazine, "Chad is just a complete jerk in the way he talks to her, and the way he talks to people in general." Though a third source says, "There's no concrete timeline for divorce right now."

So, what do you think? Cut Chad and Avril's faces out of all of our Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne pictures, or leave the faces in for now? Leave your decision in the comments!

Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger set for wedding on Canada Day

Singer and Nickelback frontman have written a song for their Canadian-themed wedding in Cannes

Chad Kroeger and Avril Lavigne at the 2013 MuchMusic video awards in Toronto in June. Photograph: Nathan Denette/AP

The Canadian musicians, who bonded while recording Lavigne's fifth studio album, have been an item since last summer and have chosen Canada Day to tie the knot. "He's Canadian, and I'm Canadian, and we have a lot in common," Lavigne explained in a recent interview with US chatshow host Chelsea Handler. The couple appear to have put a Canadian slant on the wedding itself, with red-and-white themed decor.

On Friday, Mike Heller, CEO of Talent Resources, which represents Lavigne, sparked a flurry of congratulations by tweeting that he was "about to see" his client get hitched. "No pictures will be sent since this is #avril wedding but I will tell you everyone is so excited." However, US Weekly reported that the ceremony had not yet taken place, despite a wedding party on Saturday.
Avril Lavigne - Here's To Never Growing Up on MUZU.TV.

Kroeger and Lavigne's wedding song will be a track they wrote and recorded together that will be released as a single after the celebration. The couple have been collaborating since before their engagement, announced last August, and Kroeger co-wrote much of Lavigne's new album, due out in September.

"Chad is on board with all my [wedding] ideas," Lavigne told People last month. "He likes what I like. He's down with whatever I'm down with." Kroeger has described their early courtship as "incredibly powerful and something I'll never forget".

Lavigne, 28, was married to Deryck Whibley, frontman for the Canadian bandSum 41, for three years before filing for divorce in 2009. Kroeger, 38, has never been married before. Between Lavigne's four LPs and Nickelback's seven, they have sold more than 80m albums worldwide.

Avril Lavigne showed up meet-and-greets for the sham they are

Everyone laughed at the awkward photos of the Canadian singer and her fans – but the bigger sin is that so many acts chisel money out of their loyal followers for the briefest access

 

Fun fun fun … Avril Lavigne, having the time of her life with a fan in Brazil

It seems peculiar that the greatest online wailing and gnashing of teeth over Avril Lavigne's meet-and-greet with her Brazilian fans – who'd paid a reported £215 for the privilege – seemed to concern the fact that the resulting photos were the model of discomfort. Lavigne stood, a rictus grin in place, with clear daylight between her and her admirers, looking for all the world like she'd rather be scooping her eyes out with melon ballers. For that much money, the argument went, Lavigne should be willing to let them get up close and personal.

No one seemed to raise the wider issue: the fact that in modern live music, you can put a price on love. And in Avril Lavigne's case, that price is £215. There's no point singling out Lavigne: every musician popular enough to play venues where there's space enough to host their fans does it, and they often charge a whole lot more than Lavigne.

On Kiss's forthcoming US tour, for example, you can pay $1,250 (£737) for a package that includes a seat in the first 10 rows, a meet-and-greet, a photo with the band, autographs from the band, sitting in on the sound check and a selection of merchandise. A similar package for Def Leppard, who are opening for Kiss, is $750 ($441). The lower the star power, the lower the price. For example, £159 will buy you the chance to meet Michael Bolton on his UK tour – and get the inevitable photographs and array of merch.

The growth in the VIP package market since the start of the century has been spurred by two things. First, the growth of gigs – especially arena shows, stadium shows and festivals – as destinations for corporate hospitality (yes, the Guardian does it too: our media partnership with Glastonbury includes provision for this). Clients are schmoozed in backstage bars and given an array of wristbands and laminates, though I do sometimes wonder if the well-heeled people sitting in theatres with lanyards round their neck proclaiming their VIP status know how silly they look. Second, the collapse of revenues from recorded music. Faced with declining incomes, canny artists looked to their most loyal fans to make up the shortfall, offering them new levels of access.

 

Still having fun … Smiles not forced at all there

On one level, it's hard to get terribly irate about any of this: it's the way the market works. No one has to pay for this stuff – they can just go to the gigs if they want – and if it will make them happy, then it's their money to spend. But there's something about it that's immensely saddening for those of us who cling, desperately, to the admittedly wrong-headed notion that there might be some romance left in rock'n'roll. VIP packages and meet-and-greets don't reward the most loyal fans; they reward those with the deepest pockets. Or worse, they reward those whose desire to have some point of contact with their favourite artist overrides their sense of financial probity.

The most loyal fans are the ones queuing overnight to be sure of a place in the front row. They're the ones who track down the live recordings and the radio session version, and who read every word about their chosen artist. They're the ones who already spend a fortune buying all the music and gig tickets and travelling to the shows. The last thing they need is to have a little bit more gouged out of them.

Love for music shouldn't be – indeed it can't be – measured in currency. I'm not saying musicians should not seek any means of making money apart from ordinary gig tickets and recorded music sales. But when they are asking the people who gave them a career in the first place to go above and beyond the call of duty, I think they should do the same in return. So I applaud the bands who'll play gigs in living rooms, or who offer their fans some sort of unique experience. But a few minutes with a rock star on AutoPilot in a backstage catering area and a pile of tat in a carrier bag is not a unique experience: it's just exploitative.

In that context, maybe Avril Lavigne's lack of pretence that the meet and greet is anything but an unwelcome chore should be welcomed.

Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger on edge of divorce

Photo: Getty Images

Avril Lavigne is saying "see ya later, boy" to Chad Kroeger.

After a year of marriage, Lavigne and the Nickelback frontman are headed for divorce, according to several sources.

"It's over," a source told Us Weekly. "He has been going around LA telling people that they are divorcing."

The pair met and made a connection while working on Lavigne's new album in 2012.
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A month later, Kroeger proposed to the Complicated singer.

Kroeger took a photo of himself with the engagement ring, put it into a scrapbook of Lavigne's and spelled out "Will you marry me" using stickers, Lavigne revealed to On Air With Ryan Seacrest.

Almost a year later, the couple were married in a lavish ceremony in the South of France.

Despite their happy beginning the pair has reportedly been fighting a lot. "They're having a lot of issues," a source told E! News.

"There's jealousy on both sides. She flirts, he flirts. She's very insecure to begin with," one insider close to the couple said.

In a 2012 interview with People magazine Lavigne and Kroeger revealed their strict marriage rules.

'We don't go more than two weeks without seeing each other,' said Lavigne.

Kroeger continued, "And we don't drink when we're apart.

"We don't want to go anywhere that you're asking for trouble. This is something we want to cherish and protect."

Justifying their rules, Lavigne said: "When you've got something special, you can't be careless with it."

In July, Lavigne posted a picture on Twitter of the ring Kroeger bought her for their first anniversary.

"I still can't believe my 1 year anniversary gift. 17 carat emerald cut. Wow. I love my hubby," the post read.

But in August the singer was seen leaving Chateau Marmont with friends, sans ring and the post had been deleted.

E! News adds that Lavigne's album not doing as well as they'd hoped is also causing friction.

"They're finding that they aren't seeing eye to eye on a lot of things," the source said.

Ten years her senior, "Chad is just a complete jerk in the way he talks to her, and the way he talks to people in general", said the source.

After the album Lavigne was hoping to take time off to start a family but she isn't sure that the frontman is right for the job.

However, another source told US Weekly: "There's no concrete timeline for divorce right now.

"I think for now they're going to try to work it out."

Lavigne split with reality star Brody Jenner in 2012 after two years, and she divorced Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley in 2010 after a four-year marriage.

Neither Lavigne or Kroeger have any tours scheduled.

For her 30th birthday, Lavigne is holding her annual birthday campaign and asking people to donate money to the Special Olympics.

Avril Lavigne's 'Here's To Never Growing Up' Heats Up On Hot 100

Chart success for pop singer's new single sets a promising stage for L.A. Reid-helmed Epic debut.

Before Avril Lavigne performed her new single, "Here's to Never Growing Up," on NBC's "Today" on May 17, the pop singer/songwriter smiled and waved to a special fan in the audience: Antonio "L.A." Reid, chairman/CEO of her new label, Epic Records. Although Reid doesn't drop by every Epic artist's TV performance, he made a special point of being there for the 29-year-old Lavigne, whom he signed to Arista when she was a teenager and whose 2002 debut album, "Let Go" (6.8 million copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan), he executive-produced.

A decade later, Reid is overseeing Lavigne's return to pop prominence, after the singer left RCA Records and joined Epic in late 2011. The brilliantly bratty "Here's to Never Growing Up" jumped 60-30 on last week's Billboard Hot 100 (it's now No. 31), while Lavigne returned to the top 10 of the Social 50 chart for the first time in two years, with 15 million overall plays to her name. And those accomplishments occurred before Reid watched Lavigne tear through the lead single from her forthcoming fifth album.

"My relationship with her has been this way since the day I met her, and my guess is that it will always be this way," Reid says. "She's a superstar. I think she's motivated now, and I expect that she'll do really well."

Thanks partly to the "Today" stop, "Here's to Never Growing Up" notches its second-biggest sales frame this week with 79,000 downloads, up from 62,000, according to SoundScan. The single's cumulative sales stand at 329,000 downloads since its April 9 release, but the longevity of the song -- and perhaps of Lavigne's stateside comeback in general -- will depend on radio. "What the Hell," the lead single from Lavigne's 2011 album "Goodbye Lullaby," peaked at No. 27 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and No. 8 on Mainstream Top 40, failing to repeat the success of her last big hit, the Hot 100-topping "Girlfriend" in 2007. "Here's to Never Growing Up" moves up two spots on the Mainstream Top 40 chart, and shifts 67-66 on Hot 100 Airplay.

"It's just getting going," WHTZ (Z100) New York PD Sharon Dastur says of "Here's to Never Growing Up." Z100 has played the song 85 times through May 20, according to Nielsen BDS, and Dastur believes the guitar-laden track fits comfortably next to rock-tinged top 40 fare like Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons and Icona Pop. "It's still in a newer rotation because we want to make sure it's familiar," Dastur says, "but the early signs we're seeing look really strong, and we're seeing the same thing at some of our sister stations around the country."

As Epic hopes to turn a corner of sorts and deliver the first major hit of the Reid era, Lavigne has relentlessly promoted her new radio offering: She asked fans to submit photos and videos for the song's lyric video in March, released its official music video on May 9, performed the track on "Dancing With the Stars" on May 14 and did extensive radio promotion following her "Today" performance. Lavigne is also beguiling pop fans with a love story: She and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, who co-wrote "Here's to Never Growing Up," got engaged after sharing the studio for Lavigne's new album. "Our relationship started off by writing songs together," Lavigne says. Reid adds that Kroeger "has been one of the greatest songwriters of the last 10 years."

Also crucial for Lavigne is releasing an album with more hits than just its lead single -- after all, "Let Go" became the singer's top seller on the strength of such top 10 hits as "Complicated," "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You." However, manager Larry Rudolph is optimistic about her Epic debut. "The second single is equally as strong and has an equal amount of edge," he says. "We're going to hit two home runs in a row."

Lavigne's still-untitled new album is due in September, with touring details in support of the full-length still being discussed.

The Facts About the Disease That Kept Avril Lavigne in Bed For 5 Months

Photo: Getty Images

Four months after Avril Lavigne hinted at health issues in a series of cryptic Twitter messages, the singer revealed that she is suffering from a severe case of Lyme disease.

In an exclusive cover story with People, Lavigne explained that she had been feeling exhausted and lightheaded for months, and up until October, doctors were unable to figure out what was going on.

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“I could barely eat, and when we went to the pool [at my 30th birthday party], I had to leave and go lie in bed,” she told People. “My friends asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ I didn’t know.”

Soon after, the doctors diagnosed her with a severe case of Lyme disease, a bacterial infection transmitted by ticks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is the most commonly reportedvectorborne illness, with around 30,000 cases diagnosed in 2013.

Post-diagnosis, Lavigne surmises that she was bit by a tick last spring. “I had no idea a bug bite could do this,” she said. “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.”

RELATED: Treat and Defend Against Bug Bites

While around 60% to 80% of people will develop a bull’s-eye rash after spotting a tick on their bodies, it’s not always that simple to recognize the disease. Many of the symptoms—fatigue, painful joints, and headaches—may lead doctors to diagnose a patient with the flu or another illness. Even blood tests aren’t 100% accurate.

When Lyme disease is caught right away, though, two to three weeks of oral antibiotics can eliminate the bacteria. If the disease has time to spread to the central nervous system, patients usually require four weeks of intravenous antibiotics.

As Lavigne’s case shows, symptoms can be severe. That’s why it’s so important to take anti-tick precautions, like bug spray and staying in the center of hiking trails, when you’re venturing outdoors, especially if you live in the upper Midwest or northeast where Lyme is most prevalent. Make sure to check for ticks after coming inside, and if you spot one, remove it immediately.

Now Lavigne is recovering at home in Ontario, and she’s “80 percent better,” she said, thanking her fans for all their support while she was MIA. “The get-well messages and videos they sent touched me so deeply.”