Venus Williams announced she had Sjogren’s syndrome back in 2011. She discusses her experiences with the disease in this YouTube video as well as this CNN interview. She is most definitely not letting the disease define her. She just hosted this year’s Met Gala and is as gorgeous and strong as ever.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about the systemic sclerosis, or scleroderma.
The New York Times has a nice recurring feature called “Patient Voices” in which several patients with a particular disease talk about how that disease has affected their lives. Here is a Patient Voice article on scleroderma. It’s a bunch of short stories (a couple minutes each), narrated by the patients themselves, accompanied by a series of photos of the patient. I highly recommend you listen to some of these. I identified with “The Mom with Frozen Fingers;” you may wish to start with “Losing his color” which is narrated by a 26 year old man. I think you’ll probably find yourself listening to more than one.
There are others Patient Voices segments on lupus and Sjogren syndrome too.
Selena Gomez has been battling lupus for many years. She’s been open about her diagnosis and has talked very candidly about the toll it’s taken on her.
Here are some articles and videos, if you want to read/watch more:
In 2017, she underwent a kidney transplant for complications related to her disease. Her disease course is more severe than it is for many patients with the disease; kidney transplants are typically used only after other, less dangerous treatments fail.
Dental Student Pathology 