A team is defined as a group of players forming one side in a competitive game or sport. When one member of the team is out, the whole team can be affected. It was important when Kiley Deain, Senior and a member of Varsity Girls Cross Country, was out after being hospitalized before the Raymore Peculiar Invitational. The Tuesday before the invitational, Deain was at practice and felt some chest pains. She asked her trainor about it and he said to go get an EKG. So, Deain’s parents took her to the hospital and the EKG came back abnormal. After this, she had a troponin test and her troponin levels came back low, which can signify damage. She was admitted to the hospital to be watched and was cleared by ten cardiologists after another EKG and an echocardiogram. Afterwards, she experienced a bad respiratory cold and damage to the muscles in her chest.

During the week before the invitational, Deain wasn’t getting any of the exercises she needed and found the race to be a challenge. She also had a lot of blood drawn and felt very stressed out for the race. Despite the barriers she had to get past, she still still place 9th for Varsity Girls.

Deain hasn’t let her medical problems slow her down as she feels ready for her next race and has already broken a 5K record. She has gone through a great deal of trouble through these achievements as she has been facing more medical issues than her chest pains and muscle damage. She has also been diagnosed with two diseases that can sometimes affect her performance.

“I was recently diagnosed with celiac disease. That’s an autoimmune disorder where whenever I eat gluten, basically my stomach shuts down and my body attacks itself. I’ve also been battling with low ferritin, which is your iron store. When you have low ferritin as a runner, you feel really fatigued and tired all the time.”

Deain can admit these issues have affected her performance for Cross Country. She has had to change a lot of things in her life such as her diet. As well as the fact that these diseases make her feel fatigued when she is running. Even simple things like going up the stairs can make her tired. She gives advice to those who may be going through the same things:

“Um, understand your body and, um, what you need to do to alleviate your symptoms…. it doesn’t do a person well to dwell on things you can’t change…”

Regardless of these barriers, Deain continues to do the sport and progress her talent. She keeps moving along and doesn’t let her medical problems get in the way of what she wants to do.