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The pain worsened and began to feel like arthritis. She sunburned easily. She often felt sick. She was always tired.
“I thought I had mono for a while,” Robertson said.
After school finished, Robertson and her family went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on vacation. She burned so badly that she assumed she had sun poisoning. But her doctor knew better and sent her to a specialist in Cincinnati.
Tests confirmed a diagnoses of lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Lupus is more serious and is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects 1.5 million Americans. More than 90 percent who suffer from lupus are women and most of them are 15-44.
The immune system in lupus sufferers creates antibodies that attack tissues and organs. That’s why Robertson suffers from inflammation in the form of joint pain and muscular tightness, is hyper-sensitive to the sun and has had kidney infections. Other risks can be premature cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Robertson immediately began medication and found relief. But not healing. There is no cure for lupus, only ways for her to manage the symptoms. Sunscreen isn’t enough. She uses an umbrella when she isn’t jumping, vaulting or running, setting it down just before her turn.
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“The sun drains all the energy out of me,” she said. “I put sunscreen on once an hour and I still come home beet red.”
But Robertson competes regardless of how sick lupus makes her feel. And she’s good. She is competing in the long jump and pole vault Saturday at her final Division I state meet this weekend at Ohio State. She won the triple jump at the state indoor meet in March.
“She’s a new definition of tough for me,” Wayne coach Mike Fernandez said.
This is Robertson’s third appearance in the long jump. As a sophomore, she jumped 17 feet, 5.5 inches and won an eighth-place medal. Last year she jumped 16-11 and finished out of the medals in 12th.
“She will never use lupus as an excuse for a bad performance,” Fernandez said. At last year’s district meet he considered pulling Robertson out because of how sick she was feeling. One look told Fernandez that Robertson wasn’t quitting.
“When I’m having a bad day and I think about what she goes through I’m quickly reminded that my day isn’t really as bad as people think or I think,” Fernandez said. “So she’s been an inspiration.”
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Robertson said no one asks why she competes. They want to know how she does it and why she often comes to practice early or stays late or comes in on Sundays.
“My answer is even if I didn’t have lupus I would do all the extra stuff,” she said. “So having lupus I’m not going to let it stop me from anything. I put in that little extra work so I won’t say I didn’t get that because I have lupus or I didn’t get that because I didn’t put the work in.”
After those hard days of practice and competition, Robertson relaxes in a bath of Epsom salts to reduce the inflammation and pain. Sometimes she takes another bath in the morning. Pam Robertson, Taylor’s mom, said Taylor is able to ignore lupus pain and distinguish it from athletic pain.
“I’m definitely surprised that she can do what she does,” Pam Robertson said. “She must have a pain tolerance that’s just unbelievably high.”
After Robertson was diagnosed, some friends fell away while a few supported her. She realized then how vital her family was to her and would be for the rest of her life. When the emotional pain and the tears come, she goes to her mom, her dad Mark or her older sister Brittany, who was also a pole vaulter at Wayne.
“Sometimes I’ll be feeling very emotional and I tell my mom that I don’t want to have lupus any more,” Robertson said. “I just feel comfortable showing my weakness to her. I won’t do that to many people because everybody always tells me how strong I am. I don’t want to show people that I have those times where I get down on myself.”
. Robertson has a track scholarship to Indiana Tech, a NAIA program in Fort Wayne. Fernandez said the school recruited Robertson to be a multi-event athlete, which could lead to competing in the heptathlon (seven events) during the outdoor season and the pentathlon (five events) for indoor.
“There’s so much more that I want to do and I want to experience,” Robertson said. “I want to make new friends.”
Pam Robertson praised Fernandez and his staff and the Wayne trainers for being protective of her daughter. Their dedication to Taylor and to making sure others can appreciate what she endures was on display last year at the Warrior-Elk meet.
The annual varsity and JV meet between Wayne and Centerville donates proceeds from T-shirt sales, collections at the schools and a collection among spectators to a charity. Last year’s meet benefited the Lupus Foundation in honor of Robertson and raised over $1,000. Robertson follows the research news, talks to other lupus sufferers on social media and plans to stay involved in the fight against her disease.
“I hope so bad for a cure,” she said. “Sometimes I do think that’s not realistic, so I’m just hoping that I don’t have any crazy organ failures and that I can do what I’ve been doing. That’s my hope for the future.”
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