Playing Professionally with Invisible Illnesses

In 2012, Shannon Boxx, a professional soccer player on the US national women’s team, was at the top of her career. She had earned medals at three World Cup games and two Olympic gold medals. However, unbeknownst to her teammates and coaches, she had actually been diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune disease a decade prior, and another autoimmune disease just four years ago.

Boxx, now 42, was first diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome in 2002, which causes widespread dryness, joint pain and fatigue, among other symptoms. She was later diagnosed in 2008 with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or simply, lupus, which also causes a myriad of symptoms, including joint pain, muscle pain, fatigue, skin rashes, brain fog and major organ involvement.

Treatment for Lupus and Sjogren’s Symptoms

When interviewed by the publication The Undefeated, Boxx said that she manages her lupus flares by wearing compression pants, which help with the joint pain that she experiences in her knees. She also takes hydroxychloroquine, also known as Plaquenil, an anti-malarial drug that helps her to manage the joint pain associated with both of her autoimmune conditions. Boxx describes her joint pain as severe; “There were times, even when I was playing on the national team, I was having teammates cut my steak for me because it hurt so much on my wrist to actually hold onto a fork or a knife.”

Fatigue and brain fog are other symptoms that Boxx battles daily. “I used to be able to run forever, and now I can barely walk sometimes for a mile or two. And that’s pretty heartbreaking,” she confessed. Boxx has children, and she wants to be able to run around with her kids for as long as possible. “To know that there’s days that I can’t do it, it puts you in a really bad place, mentally,” she said. When asked about how the fatigue feels, she commented, “It is this feeling of a weight just sitting on you and just even to lift your head off the pillow takes so much effort and your eyes don’t want to open. When I was playing it felt like my feet were in quicksand.”

Autoimmune Disease Triggers

Boxx explained that one of the main triggers for her autoimmune flares is stress. Now that the coronavirus is grappling the world, the global pandemic has added another layer of anxiety to the mix, especially given that she is immunocompromised. As a result, the professional athlete is following local shelter-in-place orders, wearing masks diligently and ensuring to frequently wash her hands and stay six feet apart from others.

Another source of anxiety is the fact that hydroxychloroquine, the medication that she takes, has become more scarce as a result of it being explored for its potential use in treating COVID-19. “It makes me sad that there are a lot of people that are suffering or even worse because they now can’t get the medication that they need,” she said.

Boxx believes another potential source of her flares is over-exposure to the sun, though thankfully, most days are overcast in her home of Portland, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest. She also frequently experiences the so-called ‘butterfly rash‘ that is a hallmark of lupus, and can arise following exposure to sunlight.

Two other factors that must be considered in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disease are sex and race. According to the Sjogren’s Foundation, nine out of 10 Sjogren’s patients are women; similarly, the US National Library of Medicine states that nine out of 10 lupus patients are women. Lupus is also three times more likely to occur in African American women than white women. Boxx, for her part, is a biracial woman, so her gender and ethnic background may have played a part in developing autoimmune diseases.

Moving Forward with Chronic Illness

Though living with two different autoimmune conditions is undeniably challenging, Shannon Boxx is determined to live her best life. She retired from playing professional soccer in 2015, and is focusing on taking care of her own health, and spending time with her husband and kids. Though she has retired from professional soccer, she enjoys playing non-competitive games with other international teams and coaching kids’ soccer teams.

Boxx is also an advocate for those living with chronic illnesses, and actively participates in awareness campaigns for the Lupus Foundation of America. Commenting on her conditions, she said, “I’ve been able to deal with it, and still do something that I love…[lupus] has shown me that I can’t take [soccer] for granted, because that’s something that I love to do. If anything it’s given me perspective.”