Lilly Roe’s senior photo done by her mom Kelly Roe. (Photo Provided)

MARIETTA — Despite being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder, Lilly Roe, a senior at Marietta High School, has thrived scholastically and in social media.

She plans on a future training mankind’s best friend.

The daughter of Kelly Roe of Marietta, Roe was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder called, PANS, pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome. She has made several videos for TikTok and YouTube about one of the symptoms of PANS.

“All through my childhood I had Lyme Disease. I was infected with it again and it caused the onset of the PANS,” she said. “It affects my brain a lot, basically it is my immune system attacking my brain.

“It can cause all kinds of things. For me I had a lot of anxiety.”

Lilly Roe and her best girl Copper after taking a long hike. (Photo Provided)

Roe said any trigger for anxiety was magnified by PANS. There were also a number of sensory issues associated with PANS.

“My brain can’t function very well when people are talking and there are other noises coming in; it’s very hard for me to process multiple things at the same time and make sense.”

Roe said she needs complete silence so she can concentrate.

One of the symptoms of PANS is to have tics similar to Tourette’s Syndrome.

“I found that very interesting,” she said. “When I got it one day, I was diagnosed with a tic disorder but that was not correct. I got the correct diagnosis of PANS.”

Lilly Roe and friends, from left, Marysol Garduno-Salas, Roe, Bridget Crock, and Madison Butler at Butler’s birthday. Roe said the girls have been a big support group for her and always find a way to make her laugh. (Photo Provided)

From there Roe decided to educate people about Lyme disease, PANS and Tourette Syndrome through social media.

“I educate people who don’t know anything about it and educate people who have it to learn something they don’t know like coping mechanisms,” she said. “I had 1.1 million followers at the time my account was deleted.”

Roe said her YouTube account is still active but it does not have as many followers.

“I don’t 100% know what happened. I stopped making videos for a while,” she said. “There is a thing on TikTok called mass reporting and a lot of people thought I was faking because I did not post my medical records and reported me.”

She added she was reported for posting adult nudity and her videos were taken down.

Lilly Roe and boyfriend Riley Allen on Christmas morning getting ready to deliver Christmas meals. (Photo Provided)

“That didn’t happen and they also reported me for being underage,” she said. “I got tons and tons of people reporting my videos and TikTok would take it down.”

She said she was told she had to provide proof that she was more than 13 years of age. She said that included sending them a copy of her birth certificate or her driver’s license and pictures of herself holding papers with numbers and letters on them.

“I did what they wanted three times and they didn’t believe me,” she said.

There were requests for her to have tics in the videos, but since she has been treated for the last few years she rarely has them.

Roe was diagnosed by a Lyme-literate physician in Columbus after getting incorrect diagnoses. She said the doctor put her on antibiotics and steroids to ease inflammation. She said the doctor’s theory was she was bitten when she was around 3 years old and had a strong immune response, A second bite when she was around 13 caused her immune system to overreact and it caused PANS.

Lilly Roe in Charlotte, N.C., at Operation Christmas Child. (Photo Provided)

Because of PANS her anxiety level was so high she would miss several days of school at a time.

“I took online courses at Washington State College of Ohio and I’d watch the video lectures,” she said. “I stayed with my grandma a lot and she helped with the anxiety. I would have four classes and I would be panicking if I didn’t get everything done by Wednesday; she would have to calm me down a lot.”

For the past two years Roe has been attending Marietta High School full time. She missed all of her first semester as a freshman, but took online classes.

Roe said the online classes were mostly college level.

“I’ve taken mostly college courses, I’ve taken three, maybe two classes that were not college level,” she said. “I’ve been in choir all four years and then I took an EMR (emergency medical responder) class at the high school and a single social studies class at the high school.”

Lilly Roe and boyfriend Riley Allen at the beach the first time she was able to enjoy a trip after receiving treatment. (Photo Provided)

Rose said her high school experience has allowed her to complete many of the prerequisites for additional classes.

However, Roe does not intend to attend college at this time.

“I’m planning on going to an online academy in North Carolina rather than college to learn to professionally train dogs,” she said. “It also teaches the whole business side of it. I will be applying for the next round of applications which have not opened up yet.”

Her first year will be online and then later she will go to the academy in North Carolina.

Roe said she has had a life-long love for animals and wants to work with them.

“I love studying them and researching them and everything about them, especially their psychology,” she said. “I became particularly interested in cats and then dogs.

“I’ve always known I wanted to be my own boss and run my own business and what I can be happy doing.”

At one time she was leaning toward veterinarian medicine. She said she would like to train dogs to be service animals for those who cannot afford them. She also wants to train livestock guardians and family pets. For the past four years she has been running her own business, pet sitting. However she said her business has picked up since she got her driver’s license.

“I can board at home or stay at people’s houses and do drop-in visits,” she said, “Some people have me check on cats during the day.”

Jeffrey Saulton can be reached at jsaulton@newsandsentinel.com

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Lilly Roe and her cat Auggie Choggie. Auggie always came to cuddle when she was sick, sad, or feeling particularly bad, according to Roe. (Photo Provided)

Lilly Roe at a chiropractor appointment holding the chiropractors new puppy while being treated. (Photo Provided)

Lilly Roe and her grandparents, Ellen and Don Swaney. She said they stayed with her every day and got her through many anxiety attacks. (Photo Provided)

Lilly Roe’s grandfather Don Swaney after helping her get ready for her eighth grade formal. (Photo Provided)