As we know there are many silent killers as it relates to health conditions. Some serious health issues are curable and some aren’t. Just like many cancers, lupus is a critical illness that doctors have yet to find a cure for. It’s a disease that consistently fights within. Lupus patients have white and red blood cells that fight against each other. Thus reducing the strength of your immune system. Without an immune system, it’s tremendously hard for your body to fight bacteria and other viruses that inter the body.
Lupus is one of those illnesses that is different per individual. Some people wake up and their skin is effected by lupus, while others can barely make it out the bed, like Milwaukee’s own, Dymond Williams. Dymond has been fighting lupus for about 14 years. She was diagnosed at 17 and her life hasn’t been the same since.
Dymond is a young lady in her late 20s fighting the fight of battling lupus but does it with a smile. As a teenager she was diagnosed and hospitalized shortly thereafter. For 10 years straight she was in and out of the hospital, meeting doctor after doctor, taking meds upon meds yet nothing seemed to work.
There were many days where Dymond would find herself helpless, literally crawling out the bed to use the restroom. Her body would give her lots of pain at any given time. She ended up having a stroke, losing memory, and her ability to complete sentences. Thankfully she recovered.
Fighting lupus hasn’t been easy for her at all. She feels because of it she’s lost many friends simply because she can’t hang like everyone else. She knows that if she decides to step out for a drink with friends her body will make her pay for it. With guy friends she feels it’s been a struggle mainly because of the lack of understanding. It’s frightens people to know what’s going on in her body but not to know what they can do for her. Sometimes they think it’s something she can brush off when it’s not the case.
When it comes to lupus, Dymond feels it’s constantly pushed to the side. She believes it needs way more recognition because most people don’t understand how serious the illness is. She says often times people don’t believe her because of how she appears on the outside— hinting at her natural beauty.
Nonetheless Dymond is on a mission to become more open, transparent, and even more helpful to those fighting the same battle as her. She knows that she doesn’t live the same lifestyle as those who don’t have the lupus battle to fight. It saddens her that she can’t wake up and go to work everyday like “regular” people. Yet she keeps fighting. She keeps praying, she keeps believing and she keeps winning with God as her strength.
I’m inspired by the courage to tell such a story and I’m encouraged by the strength Dymond displays every time she chooses to keep going.
Love.
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