It took two years of deep depression and a move home to Iowa before
Kendra Isola figured out who she was.
She was never going to be the mother and business owner she struggled to
become while living in Florida. Lupus - which turns the immune system
against its own body, attacking its healthy cells - had rendered her
physically unable. Her joints hurt so badly that getting through the day
felt like running a marathon.
"I had this image of myself of who I should be - healthy, strong,
working hard," she said. "And I couldn't reconcile that I wasn't that
person. I didn't like who I was."
Two years after moving back to the Des Moines area for better health
care and to be closer to her family, Isola is excited about her new life
as an advocate for fighting lupus.
Isola, now 29, is one of the organizers of the first Iowa Walk for Lupus
Now, to be held from 9 a.m. to noon today at Gray's Lake in Des Moines.
Organizers with the Iowa chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America are
aiming to raise $40,000 for research for a cure to lupus. They hope the
event will be an annual one.
An estimated 1.5 million Americans live with some form of lupus, which
is difficult to diagnose and sometimes fatal, according to the Lupus
Foundation of America.
The federal Food and Drug Administration has not approved a new drug to
treat lupus specifically in 30 years, according to the foundation.
"We have so much hope on the horizon," Isola said. "We can have a cure -
or at least better treatment - soon."
Sara Webster, a Sheldahl resident who also has lupus, said she quickly
came to admire Isola while working with her to organize the lupus walk.
"Her life has gone in a different direction," she said. "Her life has
changed and she's accepted it and she's doing it for the greater good."
It was in Florida about four years ago that Isola had nearly built the
life she always wanted. She was recently married, was starting a career
selling real estate, and was looking forward to raising a family.
Having lupus was something she just dealt with - she had done that since
first showing symptoms at 13.
Then she started missing meetings with clients and quit her job. She
learned she couldn't have kids.
Isola fell into a depression that would last two years. She stayed at
home and watched 12 or more hours of television every day, sleeping the
rest of the time, always exhausted.
Her husband was supportive, but her state wore on him visibly, and that
depressed her further. They spent thousands on her medications.
They evacuated their home for Hurricane Wilma in 2005, and she made up
her mind then that she wouldn't return.
Sitting in the Urbandale duplex she now shares with her husband and
father, Isola recalled her slow ascent from depression once she arrived
in Iowa two years ago. She said she still spends a lot of time sleeping
and in front of the TV.
Being around family helped, she said, but it was launching a Web site,
www.cure4lupus.org, that ultimately pulled her out of depression.
Sharing her story, letting others with lupus know they are not alone,
has given her purpose.
Six months after launching her site, she created a page on MySpace.com,
the social networking site, and within weeks she started receiving
e-mails by the hundreds from people like her. "Once I found this way to
reach out to people and make a real different, I started liking who I
was becoming," she said.
Reporter Gunnar Olson can be reached at (515) 284-8039 or golson@dmreg.com
