With her medium-length brown hair and rose-colored cheeks, Danielle Nathan shook from head to toe waiting backstage at Gwinnet Center in Duluth, Ga. That day, her wildest dreams were about to come true: the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted her wish and the then 15-year-old high school student was about to meet and spend one-on-one time with her favorite pop star, Justin Timberlake.
“The first thing he said was, ‘Hi, I’m Justin,’” Nathan said.
She continued with a laugh.
“I was like ‘no sh*t Sherlock. I’ve loved you since I was 5.’”
Although Nathan had many things in common with the swarm of teenagers waiting in the arena for Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds concert to begin, such as a desire to drive independently and an obsession with MTV, a few things set her apart from the rest. Unlike them, Nathan spent her mornings taking four out of six daily medications and her nights fighting extreme fatigue and headaches. Nathan has lupus, a long-term autoimmune disease that damages skin, joints and organs in the body. In fact, just months before meeting Timberlake, Nathan said she was in a hospital bed battling pseudotumor cerebri, a build-up of fluid around the brain. Nathan said she was scared because the headaches were the worst she had ever experienced.
“It was so debilitating,” she said and demonstrated with her hands. “It felt like I had a rubber band wrapped around my head.”
The fluid around Nathan’s brain had to be drained through a spinal tap, she said. But this wasn’t her first hospital visit. Originally diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, Nathan said her joints swelled like cantaloupes, and she was tired a lot. However, there were still underlying issues that remained unknown.
According to the Lupus Foundation of America, 90 percent of those who suffer from lupus are women. However, Nathan’s case is a less common because most people develop lupus between the ages of 15 and 44. Nathan was officially diagnosed with lupus when she was 9. When Nathan was in fifth grade, a routine visit to the doctor for a cough turned into a visit with a pediatric pulmonologist and a trip to the hospital. Nathan’s cough was actually a case of lupus pneumonitis, otherwise known as a collapsed lung, and in turn, changed her life forever.
“[The doctor] pretty much told my dad I was going to die in days,” Nathan said. “Obviously I didn’t.”
Nicole Lewkowicz, 20, said it was hard watching her best friend struggle. She said she remembers young Nathan’s passion for dance but said her friend had to stop because of the pain she constantly suffered.
“It sucked seeing your best friend having to stop something she loved so much,” she said. “At that age, I didn’t know exactly what lupus was; I just knew that my best friend was sick, and she couldn’t just take some medicine to make it go away.”
Lewkowicz said after Nathan’s diagnosis, they couldn’t spend time at Lewkowicz’s house because her father and grandmother smoked. Nathan couldn’t be around it. About a year after her lung collapsed, Nathan was hospitalized again. She was helping her cousin clean her room during a dance competition when she suddenly found herself having a hard-time breathing, she said. Nathan went to the hospital to find that she had fluid building up around her heart.
“They just jacked me up with steroids and said I was good to go,” she scoffed.
A month later, Nathan said she was back in the hospital.
“I woke up in the middle of the night from chest pains and got up to get medicine,” she said. “But I passed out on my way there.”
When she woke up, Nathan, who was visiting with family at the time, said she crawled to her aunt and uncle’s room in fear of losing consciousness again. From there, Nathan said her blood pressure dropped, and she vomited every 15 minutes. Once her aunt and uncle called an ambulance and she entered the emergency room, Nathan said the cardiologist said she was going into cardiac arrest and needed emergency surgery. Fluid was gathering around her heart again. Within hours, Nathan said she was flown to All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, brought in and out of the operating room and resting in the intensive care unit. Six days later, she was released.
Lewkowicz, who has known Nathan since they were both 5 years old, said the experience was horrible.
“[Danielle] never let it affect her, though, or at least she never showed it,” she said. “She still was and still is the same Dani.”
Karla Orozco, a 21-year-old UF biology senior and Nathan’s roommate, said she didn’t notice anything wrong with Nathan when they first met three years ago. She described her as fun, loving and driven.
“The first time I knew there was something more to her was when I saw the handicap decal in her car,” she said.
But Orozco said Nathan lied when she asked her about the decal.
“She said that it was from when her foot was broken earlier that semester,” Karla said with a laugh. Nathan giggled from the other room, and within minutes the two were hysterical. Nathan’s laugh was contagious.
“I actually don’t remember that,” Nathan said. “But sometimes it’s just easier to say it was because of [the foot] instead of explaining the whole lupus thing.”
Eventually, Nathan told Orozco the truth. She tries not to bring it up, Orozco said; however, Nathan has told her about her experiences in the hospital and the medications she has to take.
“Some days she feels sick because of [the medicine], but she never shows it,” Orozco said. “She is one of the strongest people I know, and I admire her so much for it.”
Lewkowicz, a psychology student at Edison State College in Ft. Myers, Fla., said Nathan is a typical college student.
“I think all the support of good friends and family she is surrounded by have not let it control her life,” she said. “I’ll ask how it’s going, and her usual response is: ‘Good; nothing exciting.’”
In addition to taking medications three times a day, Nathan said she has to be careful to not spend too much time in the sun. According to the Lupus Foundation of America, about two-thirds of people who suffer from lupus will develop a skin disease, which are often caused or made worse by exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. These skin diseases can also cause rashes and lesions that make Nathan’s face look red.
“At first it was a little hard…” Nathan said. “I used to play outside all the time.”
Lewkowicz laughed.
“She’s like our little child while at the beach,” she added. “We always have to make sure she has enough sunscreen on and is wearing a hat!”
Although she puts on a brave face behind those seemingly permanent blushed cheeks, Nathan admitted it hasn’t always been easy – especially when it comes to thinking about the future.
“I want to be work in a PR firm and be married with kids and whatnot,” she said.
But sometimes, Nathan said she wonders about the future because the medication she takes and lupus in general could make it hard to conceive children.
“Lupus has never really controlled my life,” she said. “It really was just a lifestyle change, and I’m used to it now.”
But Nathan said the one event that helped her foster that change was meeting Timberlake. Although they only spent 45 minutes together, Nathan said she would always cherish their conversation about N’SYNC and Timberlake’s two dogs, Buckley and Brennan.
He even dedicated his encore performance to her and sang ‘All Over Again,’ she said.
To this day, Nathan said the picture of Timberlake with her family sits in two frames, one on her desk and one near her bed, and the poster he signed for her still hangs on her wall to remind her of the good things in life.
“When I’m sad or have a bad day because I’m not feeling well, I just watch his concert DVD,” she said. “I can’t watch it without smiling.”
Nathan got up from the couch and looked at the “FutureSex/LoveSounds Live from Madison Square Garden” DVD case.
“Justin didn’t have to say yes to my wish or be so nice,” she said in a serious tone.
“This whole experience – being diagnosed, meeting Justin, and taking all of the medications – has really just made me really thankful for every day because I have seen a lot of kids [who] are more sick than me and can’t go to school or away to college,” she said. “I think I’m just extra appreciative of all the organizations and people that have helped me get to where I am today.”