When an aggressive form of Lyme disease left Samantha Eames severely debilitated and doctors unsure of how to treat it, all hope of ever getting her life back to normal seemed lost. Yet as she started on the road to recovery as a student at Montgomery County Community College, she rediscovered her love of dance through the school’s program. Miraculously, it seems, the activity may have been just what the doctor ordered to get her back on her feet.

It all started when she was a child. Eames, now 20, originally from King of Prussia, was prone to frequent headaches for no apparent reason. As she started her freshman year of high school in 2014, her headaches began to worsen into episodes of vertigo and migraines so severe she began missing days at Upper Merion High School

Doctors were dumbfounded. Meanwhile, the pain from the still-undiagnosed disease prevented her from being able to focus. She had trouble reading or listening to music. Soon she couldn’t handle bright lights in a room. She experienced severe and debilitating weakness and fatigue. By the end of her sophomore year, she’d stopped going to school completely and ultimately lost the ability to walk. She began spending her days bedridden in her darkened room alone.

“It was a messy time,” said Eames. “I didn’t know what I had.”

After years of the debilitating illness, an integrative specialist finally confirmed the Lyme disease diagnosis. They said she must have been bitten by a tick a long time ago and it was never treated.

By the spring of 2018, her classmates at Upper Merion were getting ready to graduate. Eames, meanwhile, was at home thinking about the special moments in her life she’d lost because of her illness, like getting her driver’s license and walking at graduation.

“In some ways it was awful. I had to grieve a lot,” said Eames. “I lost a lot.”

Yet it turns out all hope was not lost after all. Like all good mothers, Eames’ mom spent countless hours online researching the disease and how to treat it. There she came across the “Dynamic Neural Retraining System,” a program developed by Annie Hopper, a limbic system rehabilitation specialist. In essence, the program said Eames’ disease caused her brain to shut down as a defense mechanism and began interpreting everything as a threat. Yet she could perform cognitive behavioral exercises to retrain the way she thought and overcome the areas where her brain would get stuck.

“It’s like physical therapy for your brain,” said Eames. “I was so open to it because I’d tried everything by that point.”

Quickly she began to turn things around. By the end of the first day, she said she could tolerate sound in her room again. The second day, there was a snowstorm and Eames grabbed her walker and ventured outside.

“It wanted you to try something new. I did it all by myself,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening as it was happening.”

By the third day, she was registering more. She could listen to music again. She could read books. She looked into purchasing forearm crutches to help her walk.

“I still had a lot of symptoms going on, but it was not keeping me from functioning,” she said.

With her health starting to return, Eames worked on finally getting her driver’s license, and at the same time, her mom suggested the dual enrollment program at MCCC in the fall of 2018. She could earn transferrable college credits, make up the missed courses from her junior and senior years, and interact with students her own age.

Her first semester she took an introductory English course, Spanish, martial arts and self-defense and ceramics.

“It was honestly great,” she said on getting back into the classroom. “One semester counts as a year of English in high school.”

She also signed up for the College’s dance ensemble, which she learned about during the annual Club Fair. While it would take some creativity to dance with crutches, Eames said the instructor, Dance Professor Melinda Copel, said the club was open to dancers of all abilities.

As the semester got underway, it was dance that kept Eames going. The pressure of school work started to exacerbate her symptoms. She was at times severely fatigued to the point where her legs would suddenly give out on her. Or she’d be stuck on a bench in the middle of Blue Bell campus and be unable to walk.

“I considered dropping out of high school and just getting my GED,” she said. “Then I realized if I stayed at Montco, I could be more a part of the dance ensemble. I had become close to Dr. Copel and her students. It got me through the fall semester. I also realized I could be more involved in the dance ensemble next year. It was a giant motivating factor.”  

By the following spring semester, she was rehearsing nearly every day of the week, while juggling courses in English, Spanish, safety and first aid, and psychology. To help her, Eames also met with met with the College’s Disability Services office for accommodations to minimize the effect her disease had on her classes, which also contributed to a better semester. Slowly, Eames said she felt her strength return.

“One day I got up and walked out of the house,” she said. “My friend looked at me and said ‘Oh, my god, you don’t have your crutch.’ We were outside of a Wawa just dancing and jumping. People must have thought I was crazy. At that point I stopped using my crutch consistently.”

By the following fall semester, Eames lightened her course load to help prevent burnout but continued taking dance classes.

“It made a huge difference for me,” said Eames. “Through a lot of barre exercises, I gained strength and control I had lost. Dr. Copel knew how big of a deal that was.” 

“She performed with the dance ensemble on crutches in spring 2019, and she was able to perform without crutches in fall 2019,” said Copel. “She took my Fundamentals of Ballet I and Dance Improvisation courses. Sam is truly inspirational, as she continues to confront and surmount her physical challenges.”

As her health continued to return, Eames still dealt with migraines and vertigo, but those symptoms were manageable. This past spring she completed her final history course, completing her high school career. As she closed the chapter on that part of her life, she said she felt a mixture of emotions.

“In some ways it was awful. I had to grieve a lot. I lost a lot. Then I got a lot back,” she said. “I had to grieve a life I was no longer living. But I’m grateful. In many ways, Montco felt like the end part of high school I didn’t get to have.”

When the pandemic hit, Eames and her family moved to a house in Lewes, Del.

The previous fall, she’d begun looking at colleges and fell in love with the marine biology department at the University of Delaware. She decided to wait until fall 2020 to apply and has her fingers crossed she’ll be accepted. She’s hopeful most, if not all, of her MCCC credits would transfer to the school.

In the meantime, this past June, Eames began volunteering with The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute (MERR), a local marine rescue group. She spent the summer responding to a handful of marine animal strandings and rescues, including helping to rescue two sea turtles. She hopes to land an internship with the organization in 2021.

Nearly symptom free today, Eames is excited to begin a new chapter in her life and is grateful for the support she received at MCCC to get her back on her feet.

“I can’t emphasize enough Dr. Copel and the dance classes- that got me through it,” she said. “I am forever grateful I found a community at Montco.”