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  • Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

    There is a very good feature on Matt Jones by Chris Solari in March 8th of the Argus Leader

    Here is the link:

    http://www.argusleader.com/sports/Sundayfeature.shtml

    Fighting a battle against the unknown
    Chris Solari
    csolari@argusleader.com

    published: 3/7/2004

    SDSU sophomore dealing with Lyme disease

    About 3,000 fans rose to their feet in unison, and Frost Arena burst into a din of screams and applause. The P.A. announcer's voice seemed to echo a little longer, a little louder in the rafters above the roar.

    "Now entering the game for the Jackrabbits ... number 52, Matt Jones."

    Tuesday was a welcome return for Jones. The 6-foot-6 sophomore played in a basketball game for just the second time since December, the first time in South Dakota State's home gym. And for 18 minutes in the North Central Conference tournament game against the University of North Dakota, he ran and jumped and whipped his lean, muscular body around just like anybody else.

    When it ended, though, Jones sank back into his cruel reality. Though he played fewer minutes than during his first game four days earlier at Nebraska-Omaha, Jones felt even worse after Tuesday's playoff contest. Barely able to hold his lanky frame upright, the Alpena native looked like a man who had just endured some kind of masochistic boot camp.

    Neither the 16-game layoff nor the physical nature of the sport zapped Jones of his energy, however. He has Lyme disease - or at least he has been deemed a carrier of the bacterial infection by a new test, which could be a major medical breakthrough in identifying the causes of many other diseases.

    Basketball folks love to make overstated comparisons that games and possessions are battles. For the 21-year-old Jones, the real fight is with the unknown.

    It began by simply trying to figure out why he felt so bad. Now, he has been diagnosed with a disease about which very little is known.

    Jones is slowly recovering from the lack of concentration and fatigue associated with Lyme disease, which is sometimes called "the New Great Imitator." As the season winds down, the court has become his sanctuary from all the tests, doctors, and misgivings that have befallen him the last two years.

    "The only thing I can't do is play basketball," he said. "That is the only thing that's inhibited."

    A lost season

    One year ago, Jones spent the entire season in the sluggish grips of what was diagnosed as mononucleosis.

    It began fairly innocuously with a sore throat after finals week in 2002. Jones had won NCC Freshman of the Year for his play that winter, impressing the league with his pitbull demeanor and performance in the paint.

    By the time he returned home that spring, Jones was run down and feeling the mental and physical effects of his first year at college. It took two trips to the doctor for the diagnosis of mono - an ominous sign of the plethora of medical visits that awaited him.

    Facing the mono, Jones virtually went into shut-down mode to rest for his second year in Brookings. The Jackrabbits began conditioning shortly after he returned to campus in the fall of 2002. Immediately, something was wrong.

    "It seemed like every day I went, I had less and less energy. About a week and a half into it, I just crashed. I could barely get out of bed," Jones said. "There were about three or four days that I didn't get off couch. That's how miserable I felt."

    He would recuperate to the point of resuming practice, but his condition always worsened again.

    Jones' days consisted of going to class when he could, then sleeping as much as 14 hours a day. He and coach Scott Nagy opted to use a redshirt year, wiping out any hopes of returning to the court until this season.

    "He was so sick, and we knew he was sick," his father Doug said. "I guess my thought was that he had a redshirt year to use. We thought, 'Let's do this, and next year he'll get going again.'"

    No one could have imagined that the following year would be even more trying.

    Still run down

    By February 2003, Matt Jones began to feel well enough to do some light practicing with the Jackrabbits. Over the summer, he recovered enough to find time for his other sporting passion - baseball, playing for Lake Norden's amateur team.

    Even into the early stages of this school year, the physical drains of mono seemed to have vanished. Training for a return to the hardwood began.

    "When workouts first started, I remember talking to him after working out for about a week," Doug Jones said. "He came home one weekend and I asked him how it was going, and he said something to the effect that he could do just as much as anybody else."


  • #2
    Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

    Part 2

    About Lyme disease

    At that point, the family thought it was the after-effects of mononucleosis. But when tests ruled that out, Jones visited various doctors. They had few answers, and even fewer suspected causes.

    By late January, after dropping 15 pounds on a strict diet-and-supplement plan meant to cleanse his system and detect allergens, Jones reached his physical low.

    Enter Craig Dybedahl, a Jackrabbit fan and a 1981 alum of SDSU. One of his passions is reading about health and nutritional issues.

    When he heard about Jones' condition, Dybedahl retreated to a November newsletter by Dr. Robert Jay Rowen that discussed Lyme disease and how its symptoms mimic other ailments.

    Dybedahl sent the information to the Jones family and encouraged them to call a laboratory in Florida that has the first test for Lyme disease that is virtually 100 percent accurate.

    "When you talk to fans and his parents, basketball became way secondary," Dybedahl said. "I just wanted to help him because he wasn't able to carry on a lifestyle that was very good."

    The Bowen Research and Training Institute in Palm Harbor, Fla., is a non-profit organization that is the only place in the country with the capability of positively identifying the Borrelia burgdorferi antigen. That bacteria causes Lyme disease.

    Dr. JoAnne Whitaker, who created the test, has had Lyme disease since she was 7. Now 77, she has forgone her careers as a pediatrician, hematologist, oncologist and psychologist to solely study the ailment.

    Whitaker says research leads her to think that more than ticks spread the disease, as is conventionally believed. She says it could be spread by mosquitoes, fleas or "any blood-sucking insect."

    "It's bad news," she said this week from her Florida home.

    Jones does not remember ever being bitten by a tick. According to the Center for Disease Control, South Dakota has a minimal- to no-risk rating for Lyme disease-carrying ticks.

    Whitaker herself was diagnosed with a variety of illnesses before finally determining she had Lyme disease, much like Jones' history.

    The disease draws its name from a Connecticut town in which a group of children originally were believed to have rheumatoid arthritis in 1977. Five years later, researchers discovered the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria - which is shaped like a corkscrew called a spirochete - caused the outbreak.

    The CDC claims that deer ticks caused 23,763 infections in the United States in 2002, and the government organization adds that the total may be "greatly underreported." Whitaker feels there could be as many as 20 million people affected with Lyme disease in the U.S. That's one in every 15 Americans.

    Whitaker's research has concluded that the bacteria may be transmitted through semen, ******l secretions, urine, tears, blood and spinal fluid as well as by insects. The CDC says human-to-human contact will not spread Lyme disease.

    The doctor's case studies also show that the spirochete is present in such illnesses as ALS, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

    "That's all this disease is," Jones said. "It imitates just about every major disease."

    A slow recovery

    Jones sent his blood to the Bowen lab expecting to simply rule out another cause for his malaise. It came back registering the second-highest level the test shows.

    He immediately began taking IV antibiotics that flowed through a tube from his elbow right above his heart. Those self-administered treatments gradually allowed him to shoot at basketball practice, albeit with the tube protruding from his arm.

    "We were so encouraged that we actually found something that is out of whack," said Jones, who has since graduated to oral antibiotics. "From going to doctors for a year and a half, and each one telling me to just take time and go home and rest ..., to finally have something you can actually treat was a huge relief."

    Throughout the whole ordeal, Jones never gave up hope of getting back to help his SDSU teammates. He would sit near the end of the bench in street clothes, becoming the team's No.1 cheerleader.

    "I've never seen anyone so determined and disciplined" his mother Carol said. "He was always positive."

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

      Part 3
      e

      Fighting a battle against the unknown
      Chris Solari
      csolari@argusleader.com

      published: 3/7/2004

      SDSU sophomore dealing with Lyme disease

      Finally, Jones returned for the Jackrabbits on Feb. 27 in Omaha. As soon as he entered the game, the ball came his way. Picking it up as a clear path opened, Jones stormed to the basket, slam-dunking the ball and, with it, plenty of frustration.

      It was enough to make his father cry.

      "Matt's a great kid," Nagy said. "The main thing is that he gets healthy. It's going to be hard for him to get healthy during this stretch, when he's playing and draining himself. But he wants to play."

      Jones unexpectedly logged 20 minutes that night, scoring eight points and snagging that one rebound. Still, the recovery isn't complete. He couldn't play the next night against the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, and he has a noticeable squint that can be seen from the stands.

      "One thing I have trouble with now is light sensitivity with my eyes," Jones said. "It's like everything is so distant when I look at something when I start exercising. When I start playing, everything is so distant. It's like the light is playing tricks on my eyes."

      Off the court, he also struggles with concentration problems associated with disease. The 2001 Alpena High valedictorian picked up on that symptom early and believes he might have had Lyme disease all along instead of mono.

      "Last year, I had a hard time sitting down and studying," Jones said. "Schoolwork has always come very easy to me, which I'm very grateful for that, but it was really hard for me. Usually, I can sit down and read something and pick up on it really quick. But I would sit there and read the same sentence four or five times, and not even realize how to do it. All of a sudden, I was like, 'Wow, what's going on here?'"

      After all the speculations and misdiagnoses, his parents are not completely positive that what their son has is actually Lyme disease.

      "Until he is well," Doug Jones said, "then I'll never be convinced we're 100 percent right on this."

      But Matt, after hours and hours of researching the disease and its symptoms, feels certain. He's returned to a normal routine, even though classwork requires a little more effort.

      Jones' parents still say Matt keeps them at bay when it comes to how he is doing physically. Matt says he never lies to them when he tells them he feels better, adding that he can only judge his condition on how he felt the previous day or week.

      And though he's back on the court, attacking opponents for points and rebounds, Matt Jones continues to wage his biggest battle against Lyme disease's lingering effects.

      "It had been so long since I had felt 100 percent. I didn't know what 100 percent is," he said. "I still don't."

      Reach Chris Solari at 977-3923.

      Copyright 2003 Argus Leader. All rights reserved

      USA Today | USA Weekend | Gannett Co. Inc. | Gannett Foundation | PheasantCountry.com

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

        I posted this article around midnight and now its nearly 10:am Cst and no comments yet.  You can tell the season is winding down and other priorities such as family and church are making a comeback in various households.

        I must say this article was very complete and interesting. We all admire Matt ability as a basketball player and he seems so likable.  I dont think he has many enemies and seems to be determined guy.  Sitting close to the bench Friday night in Omaha, he really appeared very drained each time he came out of the game.  We hope his recovery will continue.

        I noticed that Craig Dybedahl from the Alumni directory lives at Colton and is field rep for Pfzser( I murdered the spelling) but you see their commericals on tv with the CEO Hank something, a real folksy guy.  Craig apparently in doing his homework helped the Jones out in this diagnosis. At the same timet I can understand Matt's parents in their concern about it being licked entirely. Lets hope the Lymes disease has been arrested as I dont believe there is a cure yet. Sort of like alcholohism, no cure, but can be arrested by putting the plug in the jug.  I feel fortunate in my life.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

          Thanks for that article SDSU FAN, Craig Dybdahl was a student Ag teacher in Flandreau when I was a Freshman in high school. He was very well liked and is probably quite successful at Pfizer ( a former employer of mine). It may take a while to get Matt back 100% but he will have the whole Summer/Fall to recuperate. It sounds like progress is being made. It will sure be nice to see him play against some great D1 competition next year.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

            Amazing how Craig Dybedahl could diagnose a problem that the medical community could not.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

              Originally posted by Alumguy
              Amazing how Craig Dybedahl could diagnose a problem that the medical community could not.

              In fairness, he didn't actually diagnose anything. The family still isn't too sure, and if there's only a single lab, it's hard to really make a vast number of decisions based on a single test. That's the first rule of appraisal. You never make major decisions based on a single assessment.

              However, it's a good thing Dybedahl at least got them thinking about other possibilities.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                Buster is correct. I last spoke with Matt before the Mankato game and he did not say that Lyme disease as a diagnosis was definitive. I am a little skeptical about this supposed test from some lab in Florida. When Lyme is chronic it can mimic many things and requires consultation with specialists in Infectious Disease to confirm the diagnosis. I don't know if Matt has seen any specialists, but I do know that he has not been seen at Mayo, he told me this.

                Lyme disease is very rare in S.D. and many of the tests can provide a false positive if not properly interpreted. Matt does not recall being bitten by a tick and the typical rash of Lyme disease was never present.

                Here are some more concerning issues:

                "By late January, after dropping 15 pounds on a strict diet-and-supplement plan meant to cleanse his system and detect allergens, Jones reached his physical low."

                Who recommended this and what kind of medicine were they practicing? I have never heard of such a treatment in my allopathic training.

                This info is also concerning:

                When he heard about Jones' condition, Dybedahl retreated to a November newsletter by Dr. Robert Jay Rowen that discussed Lyme disease and how its symptoms mimic other ailments.

                Dybedahl sent the information to the Jones family and encouraged them to call a laboratory in Florida that has the first test for Lyme disease that is virtually 100 percent accurate.

                The Bowen Research and Training Institute in Palm Harbor, Fla., is a non-profit organization that is the only place in the country with the capability of positively identifying the Borrelia burgdorferi antigen. That bacteria causes Lyme disease.


                Do a google search on Dr. Rowen and you will find that he practices "alternative" or "investigational" medicine. These are buzz words for medicine not backed by science. In laymen's terms, he is a "quack".

                Even more concerning is this ridiculous quote:

                Dr. JoAnne Whitaker, who created the test, has had Lyme disease since she was 7. Now 77, she has forgone her careers as a pediatrician, hematologist, oncologist and psychologist to solely study the ailment.
                Whitaker says research leads her to think that more than ticks spread the disease, as is conventionally believed. She says it could be spread by mosquitoes, fleas or "any blood-sucking insect."


                This is ludicrous and there is no evidence to support her "belief" that Lyme disease can be spread by "any blood-sucking insect." The info in this article only makes me more concerned for Matt's health. Who else if feeding him information not backed by science? I wonder how much this "exclusive" test which "confirms" Lyme disease costs? This is all very concerning and dare I say, frightening.
                We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

                We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                  Please read this about Dr. Rowen and do your own google search. No doubt about it, he is into "alternative" medicine to the extreme. There is NO SCIENCE behind his practives, but there is BIG MONEY.

                  Chelation and Oxidation therapy are bogus and are intended only to deceive the patient and make money for the therapist.  If I were the Jones' family I would stear wide and clear of anything this man recommends.

                  Someone please put me in touch with Craig Dybedahl so I can discuss this with him.  Thanks.


                  CALIFORNIA PROLOTHERAPY SANTA ROSA ROWEN CALIFORNIA
                  SANTA ROSA
                  Robert Jay Rowen, M.D.
                  2200 County Center Dr. Ste H
                  Santa Rosa, California 95472
                  CALL: 707-571-7560
                  http://www.doctorrowen.com/  


                  Dr. Robert Jay Rowen, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Johns Hopkins University and graduate of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine is internationally known for his work in the field of complementary / alternative / integrative medicine.

                  He is affectionately known as the “Father of Medical Freedom” for pioneering the nation’s first statutory protection for alternative medicine in 1990 in Alaska, against a concerted opposition from the organized medical community and an imported “quackbuster”. A few years later, the Alaska governor appointed him to a term on the state medical board against overwhelming opposition from the medical establishment. His appointment was ultimately confirmed by the legislature with overwhelming public support. The rare medical freedom he enjoyed in Alaska enabled him to greatly expand knowledge and experience in a multitude of disciplines and therapies not normally found in medicine. Jumping into alternative medicine in 1983 through a practice in acupuncture, he quickly expanded to nutritional medicine, chelation therapy, oxidation therapy, homeopathy and herbal medicine, and took intensive training in neural therapy and prolotherapy to help treat and eliminate acute and chronic pain. Alaska’s laws enabled him to work extensively with innovative cancer therapies, ozone, and ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy. He is internationally known and respected for training hundreds of open-minded physicians in these techniques from around the world.

                  Dr. Rowen is Board Certified in:
                  l Family Medicine
                  l Emergency Medicine
                  l Chelation Therapy
                  l Pain Management
                  l Oxidation Therapy
                  We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

                  We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                    jackmd:
                    I was hoping we would get your take on the article and boy you just wiped out my euphoria about Matt's recovery.  Apparently something must be working to make him strong enough to come back to practice.  I think the Jones  need to take a trip to Mayo.

                    Another thing that concerns me about Matt is his decline in concentration. He strikes me as very bright guy and if that ability is slowing down, that is scary. Nervous system problems?  I sure dont know, but am very concern as he is a model human being and just not a guy who wears No 52.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                      Let me get this straight. He hasn't been diagnosed with Lyme disease? Then why is he accepting treatment as if it is Lyme disease? Wouldn't that be a little stupid? This I don't understand at all, maybe I'm the stupid one. The hell of it is is that he seems to be responding to whatever his treatment is. Why else is he back on the floor?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                        I don't know if anybody follows MLB, but the situation that Jason Giambi is going through sounds awfully familiar to Matt's. I hate to speculate on health issues and i don't much about the situation but symptoms, fatigue, exhaustion, lack of appetite, dizziness etc. sound similar. I am sure the Yankees are sending Giambi to the best doctors money can buy and they are struggling to find a cause for his problems as well.

                        Has anybody heard how Matt is doing this summer. Hopefully he finally has this thing beat.
                        "I'd like to thank the good Lord for making me a Yankee." - Joe D.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                          Havent heard lately, but Matt was playing amatuer baseball for Lake Norden. He hit a home run to win a game fo Lake Norden when they played Volga a month or so ago. I guess we need to check the score boxes for Amatuer Baseball. I have not done that recently.

                          The Jason Gambini situation does sound like the illness that Matt has described.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                            Originally posted by jackrabbit1979
                            I don't know if anybody follows MLB, but the situation that Jason Giambi is going through sounds awfully familiar to Matt's.
                            I know they have similar symptoms, but they have said on ESPN that Giambi's is potentially fatal. At this point I would hope that Matt's seen enough Dr.'s to know if he has a fatal parasite.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Matt Jones Update-Sunday Argus Leader

                              A little accurate medical information for each of you. The media is reporting that Giambi is being tested for Entamoeba histolytica infection. If this is what he has his prognosis is very good. The infection is only fatal in countries where diagnosis and treatment are not available (the U.S. would not be included in these countries). This is a case of "don't believe everything that you read/hear." If anyone wants more detailed info on this send me a private message.

                              As for Matt, only time will tell. Nothing that I have heard is suggestive in anyway of Entamoeba infection. Whatever his ailment is it has eluded being named at this time. There has been no hard evidence securing a diagnosis with the apparent exception of the aforementioned (previous post) Ebstein-Barr virus (EBV), which causes mononuecleosis and has been associated with Chronic Fatigue syndrome. Lyme disease has never been proven. If Matt had a life threatening condition, I think it would have manifest itself by now. That said, it is apparent that Matt has a "lifestyle" threatening illness. I hope he is feeling better.
                              We are here to add what we can to life, not get what we can from life. -Sir William Osler

                              We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are.

                              Comment

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