Associate professor recounts story of retired track and field sprinter's journey to her diagnosis -- and her subsequent athletic success.
On the heels of World Thyroid Day on May 25 and the Endocrine Society ENDO conference June 15 - 18 in Chicago, Shannon K. Idzik, DNP '10, MS '03, CRNP, FAANP, FAAN, associate professor and associate dean for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, was invited to interview former Olympic athlete Gail Devers about her Graves' disease diagnosis at Chicago's Resolution Studios. Devers is a retired American track and field sprinter who competed in the 60- and 100-meter sprints and hurdles.
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder that can cause hyperthyroidism, or overactive thyroid. Idzik interviewed Devers, along with George Kahaly, MD, PhD, chief physician of the endocrine outpatient clinic at the Johannes Gutenberg University Medical Center in Germany, as part of thyroid continuing medical education.
"She is amazing. She put all of her goals on sticky notes," Idzik says. "She didn’t start running until 15!" Devers went on to win three Olympic gold medals (one at the 1992 games and two at the 1996 games) and nine World Championship golds. "She said she bit her fingernails as a kid and her father, a minister, told her that he would grow out one of his fingernails longer than hers. He obviously knew how competitive she was, and that that was the only way he was going to get her to stop. Now they are her signature," Idzik says. 
Idzik continues recounting the story of Devers' diagnosis: "In the '88 Olympics, she went for her initial qualifiers and knew something was wrong," Idzik says. "She had no energy, and she just couldn’t run like she had been. She lost nearly 40 pounds and her skin was itching terribly. She kept trying to train, and her coach was measuring her heart rate, and it was getting up into the 180s so he would make her rest.
"Then she kept tearing hamstrings and having major muscle issues. She saw several doctors over the course of two years and they continued to ask her if she was training too hard, telling her she was probably anxious because she wasn’t running well and a lot of other ridiculous things. She happened back in the gym at UCLA, where she went to college, and her former college physician gave her a hug and realized that she was emaciated.
"She examined her and sent her to her to a primary care provider with a slip that said, 'Please draw TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone).'" And that was how Devers' diagnosis became evident. It took effort to recover, Idzik says, but she then went on to be among the most decorated female sprinters of all time.