Wed, Sep 16, 2015 page18

• WNBA star faces daily health battle

  • Reuters
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  Chicago Sky head coach Pokey Chatman needs only a brief glance at Elena Delle Donne, one of the brightest stars in the WNBA, to know when the high-scoring forward is going to need a break.

  “Pokey can look at me in the morning and tell how I am doing,” said Delle Donne, the league’s top scorer. “She will know to give me more rest that day. We are on an eye-contact level at this point.”

  Delle Donne’s fatigue and stiffness on certain days has nothing to so with the rigors of a Women’s National Basketball Association season, but with the lasting effects of Lyme disease.

  

  The Chicago Sky’s Elena Delle Donne, left, is pressured by the Washington Mystics’ LaToya Sanders in their WNBA game in Des Plaines, Illinois, on July 15.

  Photo: AP

  A favorite to win the WNBA’s MVP award this year, Delle Donne, 26, believes she contracted the disease, a bacterial infection often transmitted through the bite of an infected deer tick, in 2008.

  She said she does not know exactly how she how she got the disease and did not catch it in its early stages as flu-like symptoms, such as fatigue and muscle stiffness, were misdiagnosed.

  Delle Donne finally got the illness, which has no known cure, under control, but in 2010 she said she “had a really bad relapse” and has been troubled by it ever since, causing the Delaware native to miss a chunk of last season, including the All-Star game.

  She has not missed any time this season as she averages a league-best 23 points, while adding nearly nine rebounds and two blocks, all career highs.

  “This season I have been playing well and staying pretty healthy, so people just think the disease is gone, but it is something I battle every single day,” she said.

  The 1.96m-tall Delle Donne said she can spend four hours a day “just doing things trying to stay healthy.”

  After hard games or a long flight, she said she often uses a computerized massage machine that aids recovery in the legs, hips and arms.

  She has to eat well, staying away from foods that could cause inflammation, and take dietary supplements.

  Chatman said when she sees the “glassy look” in Delle Donne’s eyes, she knows it is time to sit her down.

  “Sometimes people forget that just because Lyme has not reared its ugly head this year, she is fine. However, it is still a day-to-day process with her,” Chatman said. “Fortunately, Elena treats it with the respect it deserves and tries to get out front of any potential problems.”

  Delle Donne sees Pennsylvania-based nurse practitioner Rita Rhoads every week during the off-season to make sure her blood tests are satisfactory. Once the season starts, the two keep in touch via e-mails, texts and phone calls.

  “Elena is a very driven person,” said Rhoads, who has treated Delle Donne for the past five years. “She does everything she needs to do to stay on top of it. She has got that ‘Type A’ personality. It is not just playing basketball. She follows directions.”

  A former rookie of the year, Delle Donne is having her best season since entering the WNBA in 2013 out of the University of Delaware.

  The playoff-bound Sky are in second place in the Eastern Conference, trailing only the New York Liberty.

  Off the court, Della Donne is a spokeswoman for Lyme disease prevention and is a global ambassador for the Special Olympics. She recently won the WNBA’s Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award for the second consecutive year.

  Della Donne said she wants to educate the public about Lyme disease so no one has to go through the trauma she endured.

  Two years after contracting the disease, she began to feel extreme fatigue, sleeping about 18 hours a day. She had not had Lyme symptoms in a long time and doctors were baffled as to the cause of her new problems.

  “I never knew Lyme could go dormant and come back with a vengeance,” she said. “I had no idea what was going on. I had doctors telling me I had mental illness. That is just so wrong.”

  Delle Donne said she never lets herself believe she has conquered the disease.

  “I feel like I have really gotten a pretty good grip on it, but I have felt like that many times over the last five years and then had a horrible relapse. Unfortunately, you never know if it is coming back or not. You have to stay on top of it. Sometimes it feels like a second job, but I have to do it,” she said.
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