Sacramento State lecturer Pamela O’Kane said her most memorable moment during the recent International Triathlon Union World Championships happened a few minutes before she crossed the finish line.

She was on the home stretch when she saw a sideline supporter waving an American flag and shouting “Team USA! Team USA! Take the flag! Take the flag!”

“I ran faster after that moment. My energy was renewed, as if I had just started the race,” said O’Kane, who recently came back from the championships in Budapest, Hungary last month. “I felt so proud to be representing my country, the United States of America. The feeling brings tears to my eyes. That meant so much to me.”

Despite having contracted Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness infecting the bloodstream, a few years ago, O’Kane is determined not to let her illness get in the way of her doing what she loves.

In the past two years, O’Kane, who was afraid of heights, has climbed the 8,000-foot-high Yosemite National Park’s Half Dome. She has also competed twice in triathlon championships, with the second one held last month.

“I never forget that there are people who cannot race,” O’Kane said. “There are people in wheelchairs. There are people who have been paralyzed by Lyme disease, and there are people who will never be able to walk again. Those are the people I run for.”

In 2006, O’Kane began experiencing the first symptoms of Lyme disease. These include rapid weight loss, decreased muscle mass, slurred speech, trouble walking and uncontrollable leg and arm spasms, among other neurological difficulties.

“Lyme disease is often misdiagnosed. At first doctors told me I had ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable neurological disease, and told me I only had a few more months to live,” O’Kane said.

O’Kane said she had a gut feeling the first diagnosis was incorrect. After testing negative for cervical and lung cancer, multiple sclerosis, Guilliain-Bare syndrome, and a number of other muscular and central nervous system disorders, she decided to accept her fate.

It was not until she was prescribed antibiotics for an ear infection, that she started to feel better. O’Kane said “antibiotics were the missing puzzle piece” because they are the only way to relieve symptoms of Lyme disease.

“If it was not for that ear infection and those antibiotics, I would be dead,” O’Kane said.

After much research, she suspected that she had Lyme disease that, if left undiagnosed for too long, could cause central nervous system disorders similar to what O’Kane was experiencing.

O’Kane said she is not completely cured of the disease. Though her health has significantly improved in the past year, there are residual neurological side effects, such as involuntary moaning and foot spasms while running.

“I cannot help it. Sometimes (the moaning) will happen when I am next to another runner and they will look at me as if to say, “What the heck is her problem?'” O’Kane said.

The day before the race in Hungary, O’Kane said she received an e-mail from a man named Rick Deutsch, who has hiked Half Dome 28 times.

“He said he read a story about my illness in the Sacramento Bee where I mentioned I was afraid of heights, but I faced my fears and hiked the 16 miles anyway,” O’Kane said. “He told me I was a huge inspiration to him, and that he wrote a blog post about me to inspire others to climb Half Dome.”

O’Kane said her older sister, Denise DeTrano, has been an unwavering source of inspiration and support.

“She has always been there for me – my support system. When I was just about ready to give up on going from doctor to doctor she was there dragging me into the next doctor’s office telling me not to give up,” O’Kane said. “We train, race, and cross the finish line together.”

DeTrano said she has always admired her sister’s tenacity and dedication to her work, her sport and her family.

“I remember her very pregnant and going to night school back in the “80s when we were college students together,” DeTrano said. “She’s the best sister anyone could ever wish for, and I wish people get to experience what it’s like to have a sister like mine.”

DeTrano said competing in the triathlon has been a large part of her sister’s recovery.

“Getting her heart rate up and working up a really good sweat help clean out the toxins that build up in her system from taking antibiotics,” DeTrano said.

O’Kane, a Sac State alumna, said she motivates herself by setting goals outside of her comfort zone and she wants to pass on the same message in her freshman seminar classes.

“I tell my students not to ignore a professor if they see one outside the classroom,” O’Kane said. “I realize students think it is awkward to say hello to a professor outside of class, but it pushes them outside of their comfort zone and helps them realize that their professors are there and they are accessible.”

O’Kane also instructs a number of teacher education classes where students tutor low-income elementary students in English and math.

“When I was a student at Sac State, I took the EDTE 103 (Tutoring Children in Reading) class. I loved the class; now, I am teaching the class,” O’Kane said. “It brings such joy to my heart to bring my students to these elementary schools and witness the children’s reading skills improve from year to year.”

O’Kane was born and raised in Sacramento and attended local schools before she went to Sac State.

“Now, I am an instructor at Sacramento State and I take my students to tutor students at the elementary school I attended,” she said. “I call it my full circle of life.”

Laila Barakat can be reached at [email protected].