Shania Twain revealed some of her biggest fears after being diagnosed with Lyme disease in the early aughts during her Netflix documentary: Shania Twain: Not Just A Girl, which premiered on the streamer on Tuesday, July 26. She revealed that between bouts of dizziness, she would have small blackouts, and it made her worried as she performed.
The 56-year-old singer was diagnosed with Lyme while on tour behind her 2002 record Up!, and she admitted that the disease really affected her performing abilities in the new documentary. “My symptoms were quite scary because before I was diagnosed I was on stage very dizzy, I was losing my balance,” she explained in the new movie, per Insider. Dizziness is one of the symptoms of later symptoms of Lyme disease, according to the CDC.
While also saying that she was worried about how the disease would affect her voice, she also revealed that she frighteningly experienced lapses in memory. “I was afraid I was going to fall off the stage and the stage is quite high. So I was staying far from the edge. I was adjusting what I was doing,” she explained. “I was having these very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly every minute, or every 30 seconds.”
The documentary isn’t the first time that Shania has opened up about Lyme. She discussed losing her voice from the disease during a 2020 interview with Loose Women. “There was a long time where I thought I would never sing again,” she said. “I would say [it was] probably a good seven years before a doctor was able to find out that it was nerve damage to my vocal cords, directly caused by Lyme disease. I was simply out horseback riding in the forest and got bit by a tick.” Thankfully, the “Man! I Feel Like A Woman!” country icon has been able to sing again! She opened up about undergoing throat surgery to help since her diagnosis in a 2019 interview with Extra.