Walk to End Lupus Now - Milwaukee 2023

If you don't know me, I'm Michelle, team captain of Walk This Way. This is my 13th year participating in this event because it means so much to me personally.

I'm especially excited that this is my 13th year because 13 is my favorite and lucky number, so I hope everyone will consider participating. It means the world to me to have everyone's support!

Here's my story, for anyone who doesn't know.

I myself have lupus. I was diagnosed in 2010 at the age of 20 after about 10 years of medical issues of unknown origin. I was made to believe that the symptoms I was experiencing were "all in my head" more times than I can count. One doctor even told my mom she thought that I had Munchausen's Syndrome.

Around my 20th birthday, I started to experience increasing amounts of joint pain. At first, I wrote that off with excuses like "Oh, I probably slept funny," and "I'm not as physically active as I was in high school, I probably just need to stretch." But when I woke up one morning with basically the entire left side of my body swollen, it couldn't be ignored any longer. Thinking I maybe had a pinched nerve in my neck, I went to urgent care. The doctor was very kind, and ran a bunch of blood work, but told me he wanted me to see a rheumatologist sooner rather than later. At the time, I had no idea what he was seeing. That was at about 7:00 on a Friday night. The doctor called me at 7:15 the next morning to tell me that my arthritis indicators were through the roof and that I was testing severely anemic, and that I needed to see that rheumatologist urgently.

I didn't think much about it until Monday when I called to schedule with a rheumatologist. The first opening was about three months out, so I took it. A nurse from the urgent care clinic called me a little later to confirm I had made an appointment. When I told her that I couldn't get in any sooner than three months off, she called the rheumatologist's office herself, and the next thing I knew, they were calling to see if I could come in the next day. That's when it really sank in that something serious was going on.

It took a few months and a change of rheumatologists to Dr. Mary Cronin, but I was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus on June 10th, 2010. My medical records had been sent to her in advance, and without doing any testing of her own, she looked at me and told me, "I can tell you right now, you have lupus." It was a relief in the weirdest way. There is nothing good about a lupus diagnosis, but this illness that had plagued me for half of my life finally had a name, a face as it were, and that meant there was something to fight.

As many know, lupus is different for every patient. For me, lupus has given me seizures, kidney failure, heart failure that required open heart surgery, and most recently, a stroke. That's not even close to the extent of it, but those are the major "scary, life-threatening" things. I'm only 33. My living saving open heart surgery, was on Friday the 13th.

Please do not feel bad for me, I don't. Lupus is just part of me, my reality. No different than someone who might not like their natural hair color or metabolism. This is my normal, and I am a warrior.

I don't ask for pity, but I do ask for support. Please consider supporting me and my team, Walk This Way, for this year's Annual Walk to End Lupus Now! It would mean the world to me.

If you'd like more information about the event, or would like to know other ways you can contribute, feel free to contact me.