{"id":12057,"date":"2024-05-09T14:13:52","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T14:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=12057"},"modified":"2024-05-09T14:13:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T14:13:52","slug":"shereece-harris-lupus-warrior-and-survivor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/09\/shereece-harris-lupus-warrior-and-survivor\/","title":{"rendered":"Shereece Harris \u2013 Lupus Warrior and Survivor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Dawn Scotland<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Shereece Harris is a lupus warrior and survivor. Her story is a living testimony of the trials and resilience of living with an autoimmune disease.<\/p>\n

Harris, a Toledo native, is a Toledo Public Schools educator, mother and grandmother.<\/p>\n

Now 41, she has been battling the disease since she was 19.<\/p>\n

The onset came suddenly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was around 19, I started getting really sick and I was getting a lot of tests done\u2014they were saying my platelet count was low\u201d, she recalled. The doctors were considering taking out her spleen because they thought that was the initial issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they had started doing more tests, they figure out it was lupus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lupus is a chronic (long-term) disease that can cause inflammation and pain in any part of your body. It\u2019s an autoimmune disease, which means that your immune system \u2014 the body system that usually fights infections \u2014 attacks healthy tissue instead. (source: lupus.org)<\/p>\n

As a teenager she wasn\u2019t aware of the disease. \u201cI didn\u2019t take it seriously at all. So, I wasn\u2019t taking my medicine or anything until I got sick for the very first time. It was a wakeup call that this was serious,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She was in the hospital for two months, was unable to feed herself and had to learn to walk again. Miraculously, Harris recovered.<\/p>\n

Harris has lupus nephritis<\/em> that affects her kidneys. There are different types of the autoimmune disease that affect different organs of the body, from the skin to kidneys and other internal organs. Because lupus affects many\u00a0parts of the body<\/a>, it can cause a lot of different symptoms. (source: lupus.org)<\/p>\n

Her blood pressure became dangerously high and damaged her kidneys. At about the age of 24 she developed end stage renal failure and had to go on dialysis. Harris endured dialysis for four and a half years and, thankfully, she was the recipient of a kidney transplant in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I got the transplant, I thought everything was going to be great.\u201d She got married, later divorced and experienced relatively no issues with lupus.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2018 she started to have problems again. This time with her heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to have an aortic dissection. It\u2019s basically when the main artery in your heart tears. [The doctors] were saying it was tearing by the minute. I had been rushed to the hospital from work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She had to be life flighted to Cleveland Clinic. \u201cThey weren\u2019t even sure if I was going to make it to Cleveland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris did make it to Cleveland and had emergency surgery to repair her heart. She made it out and was in recovery in Cleveland Clinic for a month.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, there was so much wear and tear on her body that her transplanted kidney went into rejection, and she had to go on dialysis again. She received her second transplant in 2021.<\/p>\n

The following year, she had a heart attack. Where she had to get life flighted to Cleveland Clinic again and they had to put a heart stint in.<\/p>\n

With all the pain and uncertainty, she experienced with lupus she is now serving as a living witness of survival, and triumph.<\/p>\n

As of a year now her lupus has been in complete remission. \u201cI don\u2019t take medicine for lupus now\u2026I don\u2019t have flare ups and when I take blood work lupus isn\u2019t even detected,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

Harris isn\u2019t the only one in her family with the disease. She has multiple cousins on her father\u2019s side who also have lupus and an aunt that was just diagnosed a year ago. Her second cousin, Rachelle Roy, organizer of the Living With Lupus Walk weekend (the fourth annual weekend will be held May 17-19) also has other relatives with lupus. Roy, in fact, has relatives on both her father\u2019s and mother\u2019s side with lupus even though scientists say it is not hereditary.<\/p>\n

The disease affects everyone in different ways. Roy was not diagnosed with lupus until she was 41 and her symptoms have not been similar to her cousin\u2019s. Her version of lupus is discoid lupus. Discoid lupus scars her face and it has also taken away her eyebrows. She sees a dermatologist, rheumatologist and a family doctor to control her lupus and also watch how much stress and sun she allows in her life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at a lot of us,\u201d Harris stated, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like we\u2019ve been through anything or that anything is wrong. You wouldn\u2019t know anything is going on unless we tell you. We all still look great!\u201d<\/p>\n

Out of her family she has been diagnosed the longest. And often had to face her toughest battles alone. Harris decided to create the Facebook group called \u2018Living with Lupus\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I\u2019ve dealt with it so long,\u201d she stated, \u201cI try to help other people to have a better understanding.\u201d Harris recommends doctors, offers support and resources on her page. \u201cJust to let people know that you\u2019re not by yourself dealing with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris has advice for other people dealing with the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t feel like this is the end because it\u2019s not the end. I\u2019m a living witness that it can go into remission, and it can be treated\u2026Don\u2019t let it control your life. You control it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to look like it\u2019s not getting better\u2026 It will get better. Just take care of yourself and pray.\u201d She is a member of Walk the Word Ministries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of scars and I used to be so embarrassed of my scars but now\u2026these are my war wounds,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

May is Lupus Awareness Month. To learn more about the disease, help fundraise and support those affected visit lupus.org.<\/p>\n

The Toledo Living with Lupus weekend includes: a bowling night from 7 to 11 p.m. on Friday, May 17 at All Strikes Lane; a wig giveaway on Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. at 1010 Dorr Street; a karaoke event at The Trunk on Saturday night from 7 to 11 p.m.; the Walk at Ottawa Park on Sunday starting at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

For more information email \u2013 royrachelle@aol.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dawn Scotland The Truth Reporter Shereece Harris is a lupus warrior and survivor. Her story is a living testimony of the trials and resilience of living with an autoimmune disease. Harris, a Toledo native, is a Toledo Public Schools educator, mother and grandmother. Now 41, she has been battling the disease since she was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,5,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[229],"class_list":["post-12057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline","category-health","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12059,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12057\/revisions\/12059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12057"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=12057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}