Despite her serious illness, 18-year-old Jamie Schlough still feels God's strength and power … even on her worst days.
By: Mark Moring

"Junior high.

It's hard enough as it is.

Cliques. Hormones. Zits. Growth spurts. Discovering your identity, and all that stuff. It's more than enough for anyone to deal with.

Just ask Jamie Schlough. "I did not like junior high school at all," she sighs.

That's understandable. After all, Jamie dealt with a bit more than her friends did in those days.

Like taking all kinds of pills for her sickness.

Like packing on 25 extra pounds because of all the medication.

Like dealing with constant pain in her joints, pain that sometimes made her feel like an old woman with a bad case of arthritis.

And like considering the possibility of dying far too young.

You shouldn't have to think about death in the eighth grade. You should be more concerned about math tests and that stupid pimple on your forehead and whether or not that cute guy a couple lockers away thinks you're cute too.

But life gets a little harder when you've got lupus …

Lupus.

Technically, lupus erythematosus, a disease where the body is essentially allergic to itself.

Normally, our immune systems fight off bacteria and infections. But with lupus (pronounced LOOP-us), the immune system gets confused and destroys the body's healthy cells. Lupus can attack the kidneys, heart, lungs and brain. Sometimes it can kill.

Still, many lupus patients live long lives, keeping the disease under control with medications. But there is no cure.

More than a million Americans have lupus, 90 percent of them female. Symptoms include rashes, kidney disease, seizures, delusions, and aching joints …

Symptoms

Jamie was 12 when they started.

"It was the summer after seventh grade," remembers Jamie, now an 18-year-old freshman at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. "My family was on a little weekend vacation. My hip started bothering me, and it got so bad I couldn't walk without immense pain."

When they got home, Jamie had a routine sports physical to get ready for volleyball tryouts. Doctors found protein in Jamie's urine, a typical sign of lupus. Pain in the joints is another sign, and Jamie's hip still hurt.

Doctors ran a few more tests and made the diagnosis: Lupus.

"I remember thinking, Lupus? What the heck is that?" says Jamie. "I had never heard of it before. That night, I just stayed in my room, lying on my bed, wondering what it all meant. I was scared."

She was worried about her health, yes. But even more, she was worried about how her friends at school would react.

"Junior high is such a scary time anyway," she says. "You're going through so much. And you don't really know who your real friends are—who's going to accept you just the way you are, and who isn't.

"So I decided I wasn't going to tell a single soul, except maybe my very closest friends. I didn't want anybody to know because I was so scared they would treat me differently, or shy away from me. And that was the last thing I needed. I was so self-conscious."

Especially about the weight gain. Jamie took steroids to battle the lupus, and gained about 25 pounds as a result.

"I felt fat," Jamie says. "And I felt like everybody was looking at me."

But the steroids were nothing compared to the chemotherapy …

Chemo.
When most people hear that word, they think of cancer. But chemo is also used to treat other serious illnesses—like lupus.

Jamie had chemo treatments for 21/2 years, starting in the spring of ninth grade, through November of her senior year.

Fortunately, Jamie was on a relatively low dosage of chemo, and she didn't need it often—once a month for the first six months, then every three months after that.

"The first year and a half, it went well," says Jamie. "I never felt really sick, and I didn't lose much hair. I thought, This is no big deal, and I get to take a day off from school every month!

"But the last year of chemo, it got bad. It made me feel miserable. It made me nauseous and made me lose a lot more hair. I hated going in for my treatments. So it became a regular prayer request every three months, that I wouldn't get too sick."

Prayer.

Jamie doesn't know where she'd be without it … or her strong Christian faith.

It wasn't always that way. As long as she could remember, Jamie had gone to church with her family, but something was missing …

"Growing up," she says, "I knew there was a God and I knew who Jesus was, but I really don't think I understood what faith was all about. And I didn't apply it to my life."

At least not until sixth grade, when a friend invited Jamie to a youth group meeting at another church.

"I just loved it," says Jamie, who kept going back. "During the next three years, I began to understand who God really is. I can't pinpoint a certain day when I said, 'OK, I'm going to become a Christian.' But during those few years, I really began to understand God's grace and what it means to live for him."

Just as her faith began to grow, Jamie was diagnosed with lupus.

"My faith made all the difference in the world," Jamie says. "If I hadn't known the love of God and that he had a plan for my life, I would've been like, 'Why? Why? Why?'

"I'm not saying I've never asked why. Of course I have, here and there when things got really rough. Of course there have been miserable times when I haven't understood what was going on. Of course there have been times I've felt really low, and I didn't know what to do except to ask, 'Why?'

"But as I look back, it's been incredible to see how God has pulled me through each and every one of those times. He has made me fully aware that he's in control."

Control.

Jamie always had pretty good control of her emotions, knowing God was in control.

She never really got all torn up about her illness. But her parents did.

"When I was first diagnosed," she says, "my parents got some books on lupus. And they got all freaked out. They read about all these things that could happen to me, all the things I might go through. But I felt like, What's the point in getting depressed about things that haven't happened, and might not happen?

"Through all of this, I think my parents have been affected much more than I have. A few months ago, my dad just broke down and said, 'Jamie, why you?' He was so torn up about it. And I'm like, 'Oh, Dad. I'm not struggling with it, so you don't need to be struggling with it.'
rrayer.
Jamie doesn't know where she'd be without it … or her strong Christian faith.

It wasn't always that way. As long as she could remember, Jamie had gone to church with her family, but something was missing …

"Growing up," she says, "I knew there was a God and I knew who Jesus was, but I really don't think I understood what faith was all about. And I didn't apply it to my life."

At least not until sixth grade, when a friend invited Jamie to a youth group meeting at another church.

"I just loved it," says Jamie, who kept going back. "During the next three years, I began to understand who God really is. I can't pinpoint a certain day when I said, 'OK, I'm going to become a Christian.' But during those few years, I really began to understand God's grace and what it means to live for him."

Just as her faith began to grow, Jamie was diagnosed with lupus.

"My faith made all the difference in the world," Jamie says. "If I hadn't known the love of God and that he had a plan for my life, I would've been like, 'Why? Why? Why?'

"I think it's because Mom and Dad are such caring parents that they've worried so much about me."

Jamie's mom won't argue with that.

"Yes, it's been hard on us," says Mrs. Schlough. "But we're very proud of the way Jamie has handled it. She has been through so much, but she has taught us so much too. Sometimes we have to stop and ask ourselves, 'OK, who's the adult here?' Jamie has been so mature about it. She's wonderful."

Spoken just like a mom.

But Jamie says it's really not that big of a deal.

"Most days, I don't even know I have lupus," she says. "I've always thought of myself as a normal teenage girl."

Normal.]

Says Jamie, "I really don't feel like I'm any different than anybody else."

Indeed, lupus hasn't slowed her down much at all.

She graduated near the top of her high school class. She was a leader both in school and at church.

She played tennis all through high school, and now she's on the tennis team at Bethel.

Sometimes, Jamie feels the aches associated with lupus, "but they always go away the next day," she says. "And I don't have a whole lot of endurance. I need to make sure I get plenty of rest."

Jamie doesn't want anyone's pity. Matter of fact, in some ways, she's glad this happened.

"I know God has a plan, and everything happens for a reason," she says. "God's allowed me to have this, and I need to work with it. It's given me an opportunity to grow closer to him, closer to my parents, closer to my friends. It's strengthened my relationships. It's made me stronger. And now maybe I can be a hope to someone else who has lupus."

She pauses.

"I think it's a blessing in disguise."

When she says the words, they don't sound at all like a cliche«.

Yes, she's come a long, long way since junior high."

Source: http://www.christianitytoday.com/iyf/truelifestories/interestingpeople/8c5046.html?start=3