Elena Delle Donne lambasts WNBA, reveals she takes 64 pills a day to battle Lyme disease

WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne revealed earlier this week that her request for a medical exemption from playing in the 2020 season was denied by a panel of league physicians.

Delle Donne, who led the Mystics to their first ever WNBA championship last year, has suffered from Lyme disease for over 10 years and now, because of the league’s decision, faces the same hard choice as millions of other Americans.  Namely, whether or not she should risk her health for a paycheck.

Due to the pandemic, the WNBA is playing a shortened 22-game season in a Florida bubble, but that’s still far from totally safe.  As has been proven with the recent spate of positive tests around leagues that are returning to play, COVID-19 has a way of worming itself into any environment.  In a Twitter thread, Delle Donne said that while she wanted to be with her teammates, her compromised immune system made it risky.

In an essay for the Players’ Tribune published Wednesday, Delle Donne wrote about the exact lengths she’s had to go through to keep herself healthy as she battles Lyme disease.

I take 64 pills a day.

Sixty-four pills: That’s 25 before breakfast, another 20 after breakfast, another 10 before dinner, and another 9 before bed.

I take 64 pills a day, and I feel like it’s slowly killing me. Or if it’s not killing me, directly, then I at least know one thing for sure: It’s really bad for me. Longterm, taking that much medicine on that regular of a regimen is just straight-up bad for you. It’s literally an elaborate trick that you play on yourself — a lie that you tell your body so it keeps thinking everything is fine.

When she applied for the medical exemption, Delle Donne said she submitted detailed reports from her primary care doctor and the Mystics team physician, both attesting to the seriousness of her condition and the potential risk she faces in relation to COVID-19. The WNBA panel denied her request, she says, without even talking to her. In the essay, Delle Donne ripped the WNBA for suggesting that she’s faking any portion of her disease just to get a paycheck.

What I hear in their decision is that I’m a fool for believing my doctor. That I’m faking a disability. That I’m trying to “get out” of work and still collect a paycheck.

I don’t have NBA player money. I don’t have the desire to go to war with the league on this. And I can’t appeal.
Yup….. they caught me.

That’s why I played in the finals last year with THREE HERNIATED DISCS IN MY BACK.

That’s why I work out during the seven months a year when we’re not in season, when no one’s watching me, when I’m not collecting my player salary.

That’s why I’ve crammed my 6’5” body into so many coach class flights that I almost forget what it’s like to have legs and feet that aren’t dangerously swollen.

That’s why I take 64 pills a day.

Because I’m the type of player who makes up a condition to avoid playing basketball.

They figured me out.

According to Delle Donne, she also signed a no appeal clause, which means that the panel decision is final. She still hasn’t said whether or not she plans to play this season, but it is ridiculous that she’s in this position to begin with.

As our own Michelle Martinelli pointed out earlier this week, the CDC doesn’t include Lyme disease as one of the medical conditions that increases the risk of adverse COVID-19 symptoms, which might be why the WNBA panel of doctors differ so greatly from Delle Donne’s personal physician.

Still, the underlying point here is that we don’t know much about coronavirus nor that much about Lyme disease, leaving far too much risk on the table.

As Delle Donne said, she is facing a choice that millions of other Americans are also facing when it comes to the pandemic, trying to decide between financial stability and her overall health. It’s an untenable situation, one that no one should be in.