Seshadrial Miers, 27, of Duck Hill, known by many as Sha, has taken a crippling autoimmune disease that could’ve defeated her and turned it into a way to educate and encourage others in the fight.
“A lot of people tell me that I encourage them, but just by me talking to them, they encourage me,” Miers said.
Miers has lupus nephritis, which according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, is a type of kidney disease caused by systemic lupuserythematosus (SLE or lupus). Lupus is an autoimmune disease —a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks the body's own cells and organs.
Miers said she was first diagnosed in 2012 when she was 21.
“I started having joint pain, swelling and inflammation” she said.
She received a second diagnosis on July 2, 2014, when she learned she had lupus nephritis.
“When I got my first diagnosis, they just told me I had lupus. They didn’t tell me I had a specific kind. It’s different because it attacks my kidneys. I have my days, but I keep going.”
Miers said there’s no one in her family that had been diagnosed with lupus.
“I had a teacher in high school that had it. She used to move kind of slow and was red in the face. We would ask her what’s wrong and she told us she had lupus. There was another woman here [in Duck Hill] who had it, but I learned she wasn’t taking care of herself properly or taking her medicine,” Miers said.
She said learning her own diagnosis was scary.
“I knew what it was, but I didn’t know what I was about to face. It was scary. It’s a lot to deal with and it’s stressful. You never know what you’re going to wake up to.”
She said it’s a little easier to handle but it’s still hard.
“I had to go through chemotherapy to keep from being on dialysis. I was so sick. I took four treatments, I was supposed to take five, but they found out I had sepsis infection and I couldn’t take the last one.”
She’s spent periods of time hospitalized. There was a stent in 2014 when she was in and out of the hospital from August 2014 until December 2014. She said she even had a home health nurse come and help her.
Miers said she became diabetic from chemotherapy and taking a high dosage of steroids. She also has to wear glasses due to a side affect from one of her medicines, and she had to see a heart doctor because she developed heart problems -- all things she didn’t have problems with before lupus.
She said there was a time when her feet would swell so bad, she would have to rush and do things before it happened.
“When I was getting ready for church. I would have to have my ironing board beside me because my feet would swell so bad that I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t put them on the floor. I couldn’t do anything. It was so frustrating,” she said. “When I went to my doctor’s appointments, I would have to ride with my feet propped up in the car because they swelled so bad. It was rough.”
She said at one point, she was on 23 pills, now she’s down to six.
“I take four in the morning, one in the evening, and one at night. I take one in the evening for acid reflux. Oh, that’s something else I developed. I got acid reflux, and I never had a problem with it before. I had to go to Memphis and see a heart doctor. That’s another thing I developed. Lupus causes so many other problems that you don’t have. They (doctors) don’t tell you that. They don’t tell you that this can happen because of this.”
She said there isn’t anything that she can’t eat but there are things, like fried foods, sweets, fruit, sodas that she’s had to cut back on.
She said it’s a battle, but having a strong support system and her faith in God pushes her to keep going. There were days she wanted to give up, and her mom Gwynda Miers encouraged her to keep fighting.
“She’s been by my side the entire time. When I want to give up, she pushes me to keep going. She told me ‘You know what happens when you give up don’t you? You get a lot worse and you can die.’ That’s what the doctors told her that could happen when I had sepsis infection,” she said.
Miers said knowing that, pushed her to keep going and to make changes for her health.
“I eat fried foods, but I don’t it often. I mostly eat baked or grilled foods. I don’t do too many sweets. If I drink a pop, it’s a Sprite. I don’t drink dark drinks. I love fruit, but I had to cut back on it.”
She said at one point, her blood sugar was 600 when she was on chemotherapy and taking the high dosage of steroids.
Miers may have lupus, but it doesn’t have her and it’s not her stopping point. It’s the push she uses to dig in and keep fighting. Even when she’s tired and may not want to, she finds the strength to push through.
May is Lupus Awareness month, and as a way to educate the community, Miers and Latia Butts held their fourth annual Lupus Awareness program at Winona Baptist Church. During the program Miers told her testimony.
She said she approached Butts with the idea four years ago as a way to help educate the community.
“I told her that I wanted to do something to bring awareness to it,” Miers said. “She told me whatever I wanted to do, she’d help me with it. She did the first program with me, the second program I did all on my own, and the third program a lady from Grenada held it and we went up there to the Taylor Hall. But, I’ve spoken at every program but the one in Grenada.”
Miers said she didn’t speak at that one but attended the program in support. She said she shares her story to help other people.
“I think back on what I’ve been through and where I am now and how far God has brought me, and I want to help someone else,” she said.
She almost didn’t have the program this year but Butts told her there were people at her church who had been diagnosed with lupus and wanted her to have the program.
“I just made a Facebook post about it. This one was the most heartfelt we’ve had. It’s also the biggest, but it was the most heartfelt,” Miers said.
She said she doesn’t consider herself a spokesperson or a role model. She’s thought about it but she doesn’t think it’s for her.
Miers said if there’s something she could tell someone, it’s to never stop fighting.
“I never know what to say to people sometimes. I never know the right words or what to say. But, my heart goes out to them. If I had to say something, it would be: Don’t give up. It could be a whole lot worse than what it is now. It gets hard, but you have to keep fighting,” she said.
