Kris Kristofferson Collapsed Twice After Doctors’ Heartbreaking Wrong Diagnosis

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An immensely talented and celebrated icon in country music and known worldwide for his seemingly endless list of accomplishments in film, had been fighting an illness he didn’t even know he had – for more than a decade…

In a new lengthy and informative interview, Kris Kristofferson‘s wife of 33 years, Lisa, opened up about her husband’s incredible struggle with what doctors originally called Alzheimer’s. 

“About 12 years ago he was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia,” Lisa tells the Huffington Post. “He had massive, painful spasms all over his back and legs- it was so horrible…”

The initial diagnosis, she says, should have been the first sign that another test was needed. Especially considering he had spent six weeks in a forest filming a movie that required him to be dragged across the forest floor much of the time. 

Not only was he suffering from excruciating muscle and body pain, but Kristofferson was also having issues with memory loss and awareness. 

 “If he would come out of the men’s room in the airport, he would start looking around and having no idea where to go. I had to watch him constantly, it was very consistent with Alzheimer’s…”

But she wasn’t too convinced that he was truly suffering from Alzheimer’s and insisted that it “just didn’t feel right”. 

When she and her husband went to visit another doctor because supplements and treatments weren’t working for some of his symptoms, they discovered the truth behind all of his medical issues – and why none of the other doctor’s had caught it. 

“Upon examining Kris and watching the muscles in his forearms constantly twitching, [the doctor] announced, “He’s got Lyme Disease,” and ordered a blood test. The first test came back suspicious, the second test was positive. This was in February 2016,” Lisa tells the Post. 

“Kris is doing so much better than he was three years ago….”

As Lisa reveals, it’s often not the first diagnosis that doctor’s will go to because it’s very hard to confirm. Lyme disease lives in the tissue of the body and not the fluids. Most of the time, it will be confirmed by observation rather than testing. Luckily, there were some examples Lisa was able to provide to the doctors so that they could confirm his diagnosis further. 

“He was walking through the hotel lobby doors and he fainted. I grabbed him and yelled for help. He was completely passed out. This happened two nights in a row at exactly the same time,” She recalled.  “Thank God it was there because it was caught on camera and the hotel was nice enough to give us the footage to show our neurologist..”

This was a truly incredible discovery in the terms of Kristofferson’s health and the key to him getting better. We are thankful that he was able to move forward with the correct diagnosis and solve many of the ailments that affected him. 

His wife is a fierce and intuitive shepherd that guided him through a myriad of confusing medical issues that ultimately were able to be treated! 

Watch Kris Kristofferson perform one of his signature songs “Help Me Make It Through The Night” with Lorrie Morgan in the video below!