SPRINGFIELD, Neb. (KMTV) — Lexi Adams is always up for a challenge. But what life has thrown at the Platteview senior soccer player is still a daily battle. The summer before her freshman year, Lexi was swimming at a lake with friends.
"All of a sudden I look down and I'm covered in this weird rash that I've never seen before," Adams said. "Then all of a sudden, I couldn't breathe. I slept a little bit that that night and then that morning I was in the hospital. My lips were all blue and I couldn't breathe."
"For a long time, we lived in chaos-mode because she was having an anaphylactic reaction every two to three weeks," said Lexi's mom, Michelle. "We didn't know how to control it or how to stop it and watching her go through that is really difficult. It's kind of terrifying."
Around 25 hospital visits later, including some on the same day, and a trip to the mayo clinic her junior year, doctors finally diagnosed Lexi a few months ago with mast cell activation syndrome.
"When you get a mosquito bite, the mast cells are what makes that little mosquito bump come up," Lexi said. "Mine are overly active. Sometimes that consists of a full-blown anaphylactic reaction. Sometimes I get super sick to my stomach or my face will swell up. Like when I cry or sweat, my face will swell up super big. I call them my Kylie Jenner lips. I always love to make jokes out of my life because I feel like that's the only way you can cope. When you use an epipen, most of your symptoms should go away. That's what the epi's for. But if you're not treated with steroids and Benadryl, most of the time they're going to come back."
Lexi's mom estimates that Lexi misses about one-third of the school of the year. The condition got so bad, that just before her senior season Adams had to give up her first love, wrestling, after once placing 5th at state.
"I actually ended up passing out on the wrestling mat," said Lexi. "And then after that match passing out and hitting my head on the locker room tile floor and giving myself a pretty bad concussion. and I think it was at that point I was like I've got to do what's best for me. There was a lot of tears, definitely. I had a couple full-ride potentials for college."
Soccer was the one sport, however, Lexi is still able to play. And just before her final season with the Trojans, the midfielder was voted a team captain.
"Oh my gosh I almost cried" Adams said. "For a second I was like 'Ok, are we sure me?'
"She's just really selfless," said head coach Katie Hobbs. "If she saw somebody else was upset or hurting or not feeling well, she puts everything aside and she would go help that person."
"Lexi wouldn't be where she is today if she didn't have the medical team and the school staff and the coaches behind her and the team members because it's a long road," said Michelle.
"I can't express enough how much I love those girls," said Lexi. "They're like a family to me."
Lexi plans to attend UNO next year to study nursing.
