Elena Delle Donne was the MVP for the 2019 WNBA season, and at first glance, you may not think that the star basketball player faces health challenges every day.
The forward from Washington Mystics is now opening life with Lyme disease in an essay published Wednesday in The Players’ Tribune, a media outlet that shares stories of professional athletes. In the article, he begins by saying, “I take 64 pills a day” and explains that this is to keep her condition “under any kind of control,” but she also believes that this amount of medication could be “slowly killing her.”
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“If it’s not killing me directly, then at least I know one thing for sure: it’s really bad for me,” he wrote. “It is an endless, exhausting and miserable cycle.”
Delle Donne says she has had Lyme disease for 12 years, which weakens her immune system. The condition is spread through the bite of an infected tick and usually causes fever, headache, fatigue, and a rash. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most cases can be successfully treated with antibiotics in a few weeks, but if left untreated, the infection can spread to the joints, heart, and nervous system.
In the essay, Delle Donne also reflects on the process that led to her diagnosis of Lyme disease, which can be very difficult for doctors to identify.
“I had migraines and night sweats. I had extreme fatigue and body aches. I felt horrible all the time. But we still had no idea what it was,” he wrote. “A doctor would look and think it was one thing, another doctor would look and think it was something else, and so on.”
“Even when I went to the right doctor, finally, a literate Lyme doctor, who diagnosed me correctly, even then there was so much we had no idea about. There were a million different treatments; there was a lot of trial and error.”
Delle Donne said in her essay that she refers to her “chronic Lyme” condition, but the true medical term is “Lyme disease syndrome post-treatment.” She explains that she has an active and current infection and other coinfections.
Still, she struggles with her condition to “keep me healthy enough to play the game I love, healthy enough to do my job and earn the wages that support my family,” she wrote.
When the coronavirus outbreak began, Delle Donne said she “immediately took it seriously” because of her condition. Then, when it was announced that the season would continue with security measures, he had to decide, with the help of his doctor, if he could play safely.
“I still wanted to play, but I was scared,” he wrote, explaining that they finally determined that it was “too risky.”
The 30-year-old athlete says she applied for a medical exemption to participate in the upcoming WNBA season, which will continue amid the coronavirus pandemic. The exemption would allow her to receive her salary without playing, but that was reportedly not what happened.
When she submitted her waiver request, which she said included a report from the doctor treating her Lyme disease, she said she wasn’t even wondering if she should qualify.
“I didn’t need a panel of league doctors to tell me that my immune system was high risk. I’ve played my entire career with a high-risk immune system !!!” she wrote. “I LIVE with a high-risk immune system”.
But the request was denied, Delle Donne said, adding: “Now I have two options left: I can risk my life … or lose my salary. Honestly? That hurts.”
“What I hear in your decision is that I’m a fool for believing my doctor,” she continued. “That I’m faking a disability. That I’m trying to ‘get out’ of work and still get paid.”
He went on to say that he wrote the article in part because he wants to “take on a more public role in the battle against Lyme disease,” and that he knows his dilemma: work and risk his life or lose his salary. It is not exclusive to her.
After her essay was published, Mystics head coach Mike Thibault clarified that the team would pay her for the 2020 season, even if she didn’t play, NBC Sports reported Wednesday.
“The Mystics organization will never jeopardize the health and well-being of Elena or any other player at any time,” Thibault told reporters. “As in the past, with both a history of Lyme disease and injuries on the court, all decisions about her ability to play will be made in conjunction with Elena. She is on our list.”
“If at some point later in the season we are all comfortable, I mean, all comfortable, both with their physical progress and with the security of joining the team in Florida, then we will make those arrangements,” he added.
The WNBA did not immediately respond to TODAY’s request for comment.
