Rural Akron man fights his way back to mobility

(Photo contributed) Jeff Klemme, who recently returned home from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, is working his way step by step to being able to walk again. Here he holds his granddaughter, Makenzie Hughes, the daughter of Jessica and Clint Hughes. [Click to enlarge]

About two months ago, Plymouth County farmer Jeff Klemme was looking at the possibility of being in a wheelchair his entire life.

He couldn't unclench his hand without help, much less get out of a chair.

Klemme -- husband, father of three, and involved in everything from farming and delivering propane to serving as a Plymouth County Fair Board member -- was essentially paralyzed.

Now he's getting back on his feet.

With the help of leg braces, a walker and a trio of physical therapy workers, Klemme is back home doing laps around his kitchen -- an unthinkable feat before his recent 40-day visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

It started last April, when the rural Akron man noticed tingling in his pinky toes.

Numbness spread up his legs and started in his fingers.

"One night I could make it up the stairs to bed, the next night I couldn't," he said.

He underwent test after test.

"It was always, 'We don't know, we don't know,'" Klemme remembers.

He worked at the Plymouth County Fair's sheep show in late summer, a long-standing tradition for him, but had a hard time getting around.

Finally in August, a spinal tap helped doctors diagnose him with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP).

CIDP is a disease of the nervous system believed to be caused by immune system cells attacking nerves in their own body. The nerves stop responding, or respond only weakly, giving the pins and needles feeling.

"They told me they can't cure it, but you can recover," Klemme said. "About 80 percent of people who get it are in remission."

Klemme was getting treatment for CIDP, but it kept progressing.

"He couldn't do anything by himself. Nothing," said his daughter Cassie Iseminger, of Akron.

Then Klemme received an unusual letter.

A woman from Alcester wrote to him, saying, "I've been through this and I want to talk."

Her beautician saved the article on Klemme's benefit fundraiser from the Daily Sentinel and gave it to the woman, since she is in remission from CIDP.

The woman gave her phone number, and Klemme decided to call her up.

"I told her where I was, and she said that I should not be losing ground if I was being treated," Klemme said.

She had two things to say: first, she was treated and it worked, and second, Klemme should go to the Mayo Clinic.

He decided to take her advice.

"The Mayo Clinic actually named CIDP in 1985," Klemme said.

Still, it is a rare disease. Klemme's neurologist has only seen four or five cases in his entire career.

At Mayo, Klemme underwent plasma exchange and intense therapy, starting at 7 a.m. and keeping him busy until 3 p.m.

"They don't let you off easy there," he laughed.

But it paid off.

"The first time I stood up at the Mayo, with the help of a lifting system, I felt like I was eight feet tall," Klemme said.

Then, with braces and a walker, he started to relearn how to walk

"You've got to think about every step -- heel, toe, knee hip; heel toe, knee, hip," he said.

When he left Rochester, he could walk as much as 500 feet each day.

Now he practices in his kitchen, but plans to start doing laps in the school hallways.

Pain is an everyday reality for Klemme, even with medication.

"When it's healing it feels like having pins and needles, severely," he said. "And during the day sometimes it'll feel like electric shocks, running from my hand to my foot. But you gotta have pain to get better."

Now that he's home, Klemme is getting back in touch with the Alcester woman who suggested he try the Mayo Clinic.

"We're going to meet her," he said.

And he can't stop thanking his family and friends who have overwhelmed him with support.

Fair board members laid cement at his home so he could get to the door. His family built a ramp on his house.

"Between family, friends, neighbors, the FFA people who raised a lot money, I don't know what we would have done without them," he said.

His daughter said the whole process has made the family closer.

"You think no one is ever going to get hurt in your family, but when it does happen, you come together," Iseminger said.

Klemme said having CIDP has changed his outlook on life.

"When doctors can't even tell me I'll walk again..." he said. "I've seen life in a wheelchair."

What exactly recovery will look like for Klemme is still unknown.

CIDP can have long-reaching effects or relapses.

"Fatigue will always be an issue," he said.

Above all, Klemme wants to walk again.

"He's very stubborn and he wants to get better fast," Iseminger laughed. "He wants to go outside."

Klemme has a goal.

"If I'm up for walking by fair time, even with a cane, that'll be something," he said.

And he's counting on being there.

"After all," Klemme grinned, "I've got the sheep show to run."