Malia is an athlete, and in high school she was competing in cross-country at a very competitive level. Then, her senior year, a friend and teammate came down with a case of Chlamydia pneumoniae. Several cross-country team members caught it from her, including Malia. The initial onset of the infection felt to Malia like she had come down with influenza, or perhaps the bacteria invaded in the aftermath of the flu. At any rate, she just couldn’t seem to get well.
The impact on her running was extremely distressing to Malia. The inability to get adequate oxygen triggered terrible leg pain, and though she ran through it, her times suffered. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath, and her coach had to pull her out of one race because he was worried that she might pass out.
Since most doctors are not very familiar with C. pneumoniae, it took quite a while for the girls to get a proper diagnosis. At first, the doctors told Malia that there was nothing wrong her–causing her immense frustration and anxiety, since she could tell that there was indeed something amiss. Fortunately, the first teammate who had come down with the infection was finally diagnosed, and that led to diagnosis and treatment for other team members, including Malia.
Recovery required many months of antibiotic treatment. Finally, during her sophomore year in college, Malia was once again running as well as she had before she got sick and she is competing at the collegiate level. You can learn more about Malia’s story in Dr. David Hahn’s book, A Cure for Asthma? What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You–and Why. Or listen to Malia tell her story herself on The People’s Pharmacy radio show starting this weekend, May 17, 2014.
