Lupus

A few weeks ago I was sidelined due to an injury. I ended up having to take a little over a week completely off the bike. The timing wasn't ideal but when is a good time to be injured? At first it seemed like a big deal because I had to miss Rouge Roubaix, a super fun race I won last year. It also threw a wrench in my training and preparation for Sunny King Criterium and Ft. McLellan Road Race. As a cyclist, when anything affects your training and preparation, it is easy to worry and doubt yourself. However, after some reflection I realized it wasn't such a big deal. I knew I was going to get well again and would be able to ride at my same level soon. Like I said in an earlier post, when my team manager's wife spoke at our team camp about the living with Lupus, it really struck a chord with me.  I decided to use my down time to educate myself about the autoimmune disease Lupus.

Lupus is a cruel, mysterious, and complicated autoimmune disease which effects roughly 5 million people across the globe. Lupus symptoms are different in each individual and can range from mild to life-threatening. Since the symptoms vary from individual to individual it makes Lupus a difficult disease to treat. Lupus is a disease of flares which means sometimes the symptoms lay dormant and out of the blue the symptoms can become active causing the patient to have an attack. Lupus can attack any organ within the body. The immune system is composed of B cells and T cells which help create antibodies to fight infection. The B cells in patients with Lupus incorrectly fight the healthy cells of the individual as opposed to foreign antigens. This means the immune system is constantly fighting even if there isn't an infection to fight. This can cause individuals with Lupus experience increased fatigue. Melissa Higginson, a woman who hosts our team at the Redlands Cycling Classic, gave me some insight into her experience with Lupus. Simple tasks such as getting dressed in the morning, watering plants, or taking a shower can be taxing for her. She has to plan her day around this fatigue. Her doctors tell her to exercise more because the exercise will increase her energy, but if putting on clothes is draining how taxing would exercise be? This is a psychological struggle because it makes it seem like the doctor does not understand what she is going through. What bothers her the most though is the inability to be spontaneous and do things like take a vacation. Not all Lupus patients have the same experience as Melissa, but this is just some of what she experiences on a daily basis.

Above are a few things that people with Lupus have to struggle with on a day to day basis. I wanted to shed some light on why the word Lupus is printed on my team jersey. We all have our own struggles, physically and mentally. We all go through difficult times. Learning more about this disease gave me perspective. If I get sick or injured or if a race doesn't go accordingly, I recover and have another race on the horizon. If you have Lupus you have to live with it every day, and it isn't going away. I have so much respect for people like Melissa and Marjorie. Living with Lupus makes them way tougher than I'll ever be. Click here to donate to the Lupus Foundation of Georgia. If you want more info about the disease you can get the book called the Lupus Book. I want to thank Melissa very much for her insight and info on Lupus.