Lyme Disease in the Sports World
It was a typical workout for Kevin Robertson as he paced through the misty morning air. Robertson was going for his daily morning run when he saw a small black dot on his leg. After looking more closely, Robertson’s heart raced out his chest, knowing that the black dot embedded in his body was a tick. As time went on, Robertson started to feel strange pain lingerie throughout his body. “I was walking up the stairs, barely excreting any energy. My joints hurt, my muscles hurt, and I could barely breathe the air I was taking in. It was at that moment I knew my running career was in danger all because of one tick bite.” Robertson of Syracuse University, who currently runs on the cross country and track teams, has altered his life after contracting the infectious disease known as Lyme Disease.
Robertson is 21 years old and has been a runner his whole life; “never could I imagine doing anything other than running. It’s been a part of me at such a young age,” Robertson said. Then, over in the summer of 2020 Robertson found a tick on him and felt severe symptoms right away, ranging from fevers, headaches, joint pain, muscle stiffness, and even more. After weeks of feeling ill, he was able to go on antibiotics that only helped a small amount. “The medicine took away the severe pain, but the chronic pain I feel daily is always there, even after months of treatment,” Robertson said. So even though this disease has not only terrorized Robertson’s immune system, it’s also caused months off his training and put a strain on what he loves doing the most, running.
Athletes are supposed to be invincible, feeling no pain or hurt, so when they have health issues such as an “invisible disease,” it is hard to show pain and struggle when you have a stigma and status that athletes do. Robertson felt that being an athlete was incredibly difficult because athletes are looked upon as solid, and determined. So, when you have a sickness that many do not understand, it is hard not to give up without looking weak. “It was hard to just get out of bed; I couldn’t even imagine working out on top of it,” Robertson said.
Male athletes can be seen as weak or small for expressing health issues, especially mental health. Robertson said that he thought it was hard for him when he went through his health issues because of the daily struggles that he’d never face. “After being sick for so long, feeling daily chronic pain, you begin to think of dark thoughts because depression creeps up on you when you’re at your worst,” Robertson said.
As time went on, Robertson struggled immensely with chronic pain that spread throughout his body. He said it was a massive setback in his athletic career because it affected his joints, muscles, memory and breathing. “It was so hard to go out for a simple run, something I used to do all the time,” Robertson said. Although it became a challenge for him over time, he overcame some obstacles he never thought he’d face.
Many professional athletes who struggle with Lyme Disease don’t get fully understood or sympathized as an athlete who has an autoimmune disorder or even an injury, for that matter, Robertson said. So despite loving his teammates and coaches, he believes no one understands what he went through. According to WNBA player Elena Delle Donne, she had to risk her life in order to play through the pandemic with Lyme Disease as if affects your immune system. “A few days later, the league’s panel of doctors — without ever once speaking to me or to either of my doctors — informed me that they were denying my request for a health exemption. I’m now left with two choices: I can either risk my life….. or forfeit my paycheck. Honestly? That hurts,” Donne said.
The lack of education and awareness of ticks themselves makes it impossible for people to understand the disease, says Lyme Disease and tick expert Dr.Brian Leydet of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Leydet has been studying ticks and the condition for over ten years and knows the damage they can cause to the human body, especially athletes who use their energy every day to perform to specific standards. “Lyme disease can be chronic and dangerous over some time. Unfortunately, more than 15 percent of people end up getting chronic Lyme because of a long period of misdiagnosing and not seeing the tick on their body,” Leydet said.
“I am around ticks all the time. I go out and look for them in the fields and even let them crawl on me and I still haven’t gotten bit because I’m educated on the topic, just like we all need to be,” Leydet said. Leydet knows that people with Lyme Disease have limited mobility and several health issues, so it becomes impossible to do your job if you’re an athlete struggling with this.
“So many athletes struggle with this disease and either has to step away or find a way to overcome it. You can’t give up on yourself, most importantly,” Robertson said. “As runners were in wooded area all the time, making it more likely to get bitten by a tick and even less likely to acknowledge the symptoms,” Robertson says that even those who work in the medical field do not recognize that it affects athletes as much as it does.
A registered nurse who worked with Robertson was very dismissive of his feelings and issues on this matter. Robertson’s nurse believes that Lyme Disease isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. She says that it can be controlled and monitored with medicine, but many athletes like Robertson disagree because of the lack of help it has given them. “Lyme can be tamed. Many don’t want to believe that but working in the medical field, it is possible to heal with medicine,” She said, “I’m not disregarding the disease and saying it’s not real, but there’s not enough research saying it doesn’t “go away” or can’t be fixed.”
Despite doctors, coaches and teammates not always supporting them as they ignore when they talk about their pain when this occurs, Robertson also says that fans don’t help it either. He says he’s noticed those who are not as educated on the topic having the most to say. “Many fans, not just those who follow cross country but those who see other athletes struggle with Lyme Disease, like big-time athletes, just assume they are being soft or giving up on themselves because they don’t understand how challenging a chronic disease is,” Robertson said. He also says that having fans and support makes loving the game more enjoyable and without that, it becomes problematic. “When the world doesn’t believe you, it’s hard to believe in yourself,” Robertson said.
Robertson is now still running cross country and track for Syracuse University but finds himself facing roadblocks because of the long-lasting symptoms Lyme Disease caused for him and his body. Robertson says he wakes every morning knowing that he has to deal with something his teammates don’t but knows it has made him the person and runner he is today. He says he is better today and is still planning on continuing runner in the future. He hopes that those who don’t understand the disease take the time to educate themselves and their peers for their own sake one day. Robertson said, “If people took the time to understand those who struggle with not only Lyme Disease but other illnesses in the sports world, it’d be a better place.”