Venus Williams Dx with Sjogren's

[Vanguard]

Anybody see this yet? Says she had a virus before the U.S. Open, now she's been diagnosed with Sjogren's syndrome and has withdrawn from the U.S. Open:

http://espn.go.com/tennis/usopen11/story/_/id/6914019/2011-us-open-venus-williams-withdraws-illness

 

[mellster]

Just saw it in the ticker while watching Roddick vs Russell - remembering my tournament playing times as a kid back in Europe Too bad for her. I think overtraining could possibly exascerbate/trigger predispositions like these, hopefully she can deal with it somehow and still perform for a while.

 

[beaker]

As a tennis fan and an admirer of the sisters Williams, I was very sad to see this news.

I must confess, however, that my mind automatically thought : What a boost this is for those w/ Sjogren's and if she had to have something .....<sigh>


For the record, I really wouldn't wish this on anyone.

 

[ixchelkali]

This is such sad news. Sad when anyone gets it, perhaps sadder when it's someone whose livelihood and passion depend on peak physical fitness. And if you follow tennis at all, it's like hearing it about someone you know.

But what's with this UCLA rheumatologist that ESPN quoted? "Fitzgerald is not involved in treating Williams and does not know her symptoms or medical history. But, he said, if Williams has the typical symptoms, 'it does not seem life-threatening or career-ending.'" Huh? That doesn't sound like the same disease that's described on the patient forums. And she's already getting fatigue and joint pain. Sjogren's is more than just dry eyes and mouth. Grr. Do these doctors ever actually listen to their patients or do they just parrot what they read in a textbook? He makes it sound like she's a wimp if it affects her game.

Tennis Grandstand had a better description of the disease: http://www.tennisgrandstand.com/archives/10380.

 

[Tony Mach]

She had a viral infection in August during the "Rogers Cup" and had to drop out of the tournament. She has tried to reenter the Tennis sport but had problems with fatigue and joint pain (as far as I know).

From my point of view: she caught some virus, which triggered (caused?) Sjgren's.

What I find amazing how fast she was diagnosed with Sjgren's. Well, she is a top-athlete and I guess they were franticly trying to find out what is wrong with her. But never the less, how fast was that? Three weeks? How many other tests did they do? And which ones? Who here went to her/his doctor about fatigue and joint-pain and got test for Sjrgen's?

Edit:
In comments to the press, Ms. Williams expressed disappointment at being unable to compete because of severe fatigue and pain, but gratitude for recently receiving a diagnosis of Sjgrens syndrome that explained symptoms she had been feeling for some time, said Ms. Dowd. Unfortunately, her experience is not uncommon; proper diagnosis can take years.

So I guess she had problems with fatigue and pain before, but it seems the viral infection completely knocked her over.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Or does she really have M.E. and it's too socially unacceptable to admit that so calls it something else?
As others have, by the way.
M.E., the new social disease!
sigh

 

[urbantravels]

What I find amazing how fast she was diagnosed with Sjgren's. Well, she is a top-athlete and I guess they were franticly trying to find out what is wrong with her. But never the less, how fast was that? Three weeks? How many other tests did they do? And which ones? Who here went to her/his doctor about fatigue and joint-pain and got test for Sjrgen's?

Edit:
In comments to the press, Ms. Williams expressed disappointment at being unable to compete because of severe fatigue and pain, but gratitude for recently receiving a diagnosis of Sjgrens syndrome that explained symptoms she had been feeling for some time, said Ms. Dowd. Unfortunately, her experience is not uncommon; proper diagnosis can take years.

So I guess she had problems with fatigue and pain before, but it seems the viral infection completely knocked her over.

It also seems possible that what she and others identified as a "viral infection" was really a flare-up of symptoms, since there is no statement here that she was actually tested for a virus and that a specific virus was found. Most of the time when people have symptoms of a "viral infection" the assumption is made that it's a viral infection without further testing.

As for ruling out Sjogren's on the way to an ME/CFS diagnosis, I certainly had the ANA panel done with the standard rheumatology workup, and rheumatology was the first specialty I was referred to when my symptoms set in.

 

[heapsreal]

it is sad to hear someone losing their peak performance, but with all her money should just walk into any cfs guru and get put on ampligen and other antivirals etc and get sorted very quickly and not have to take years like many of us to find a good cfs doc, plus 99% of us will never get near ampligen and such treatments. Wouldnt that be a good recommendation if she went on ampligen and improved and went back and won wimbledon, might help ampligen approval or interest anyway.

cheers!!!

 

[me/cfs 27931]

Sorry to bring back such an old thread, but according to The Sun, Venus Williams suffers from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I can't say I've heard this before, and I wonder if it's accurate.

Venus Williams battled through the pain barrier today to seal her place in the second round.

The 36-year-old - who suffers from a chronic fatigue syndrome - gasped for breath in the searing heat as she was put through the mill by Ukrainian hopeful Kateryna Kozlova.

Williams took every moment’s rest she could in the shade of beneath the Rod Laver Arena stands and looked drained of energy as she slumped in her seat for changeovers.

But she showed true grit to win the first set on a tiebreaker before closing out the second 7-5.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/tenn...2017-andy-murray-illya-marchenko-first-round/

 

[*GG*]

Weird verbiage: "who suffers from A chronic fatigue syndrome"

What good does the "A" do in this sentence?

GG

 

[RogerBlack]

I note if she actually has CFS, her net worth is equivalent to a decade or two of NIH CFS research at the 2015 level.

I do wonder if there is even a long-shot study that an individual could fund for $20M that might do anything meaningful.

 

[*GG*]

I note if she actually has CFS, her net worth is equivalent to a decade or two of NIH CFS research at the 2015 level.

I do wonder if there is even a long-shot study that an individual could fund for $20M that might do anything meaningful.

Interesting question, wonder if $5 Million or less would do? I would think that if you wanted to go on the cheap, use Biobanked samples already, that would reduce the costs greatly!

I would never ask someone to take a big financial hit, if they did it on their own, then that would be very nice!

GG