Katelyn V. - Diagnosed at age 13

I was diagnosed with Lupus and RA at age 13 years old. I played soccer my whole life till one day I suddenly became weaker and extremely tired. As a child that isn’t normal, so my mother had took me to get seen once she noticed I couldn’t even hold my toothbrush up to my teeth. I was seen and diagnosed and that changed my life forever. I was a star player for soccer, traveled out of state for nationals, and won valley championships for my high school. I wasn’t very consistent with soccer due to my illness and it was hard; I pushed through because of how much I loved it, but it got to a point where my body couldn’t anymore. I had to give up the one thing I loved and watched my fellow teammates succeed without me. They all went off to college and I stayed behind and failed all my classes. Life became a blur and I became depressed, disobeying my parents and doing things I shouldn’t. I was lost and sick everyday with uneducated family who thought I was lazy. 

I tried my hardest to get out of this hole I was in and started to travel; I went to Hawaii, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Lake Tahoe & other places to distract myself. While traveling, I met my now-husband of 5 years who is the best caregiver, lover, & father to our 1-year-old daughter. He was in the military when we met and I suddenly fell extremely sick and was retaining fluids during our first couple months of dating. I was hospitalized; my kidneys were failing, and he was sent to a school in Oklahoma and we couldn’t see each other. I was pumped with 1000 mg of IVs monthly and had a blood transfusion. Once I returned home, I had gone from weighing 120 to 160 in a span of two - three months. I had the biggest moon face I'd ever seen and I was scared the person I was falling in love with wouldn’t recognize me or would fall out of love with me because of how I looked. This wasn’t who he met; would he care? No… he wouldn’t care. Please follow up with me; I have so much story to tell that’s not the end. My life is genuinely a movie.