Living in the shadow of a silent killer

Michelle Hopkins, Richmond News
Published: Friday, May 15, 2009

Looking at fitness instructor Cheryl Sharpe, what you see is a slim, attractive woman who exudes health and vitality.

However, her healthy exterior belies the fact that the 34-year-old lives with Vasculitis, a rare disease that could kill her. Vasculitis is a family of 15 rare diseases.

The rest of this story is here.

My Comments: The reason that I like this story is that if you talk to any WG patient, they have a much similar story. Usually they had good health until suddenly they began to get fatigued with lungs, sinus, and/or kidney symptoms. WG is an auto-immune disease, which means that something triggers the immune system to start attacking the body. WG is still a mystery disease because the researchers still do not know what triggers it.

In my case I used to hike up and down the hills and mountains of Germany. When I became ill, my doctors were convinced that if I hadn't been in such good health that I would have died from the disease.

Now I am chunky from the meds. But, when you look at me, you would not realize that I have a chronic disease.