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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.

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