Sané du Preez was busy planning her wedding eight years ago when she had sudden chest pains. ‘I thought I was having a heart attack!’ She was 33 years old, worked as a medical management consultant, and was a high-performance Free State provincial netball player and athlete.
Her GP sent her to a cardiologist, who ran tests but found nothing wrong. The chest pains persisted, and she began having intense gut pain as well. A gastroscopy and a colonoscopy revealed nothing. By now, her muscles also ached constantly, but a neurologist was unable to diagnose a problem. From being constantly active, Sané found herself chronically tired, to the point of not being able to get out of bed.
‘Within a year, my life was turned upside down. I quit sports because I didn’t have the energy, and I almost lost my job because I couldn’t concentrate or think clearly. I married the woman I’d loved for seven years, but I’d become a different person: in constant pain, emotionally diminished, socially withdrawn, on antidepressants – and for no medically diagnosable reason. I felt like hell and a neurologist told me outright, “The pain is all in your head.” I started to doubt myself, my sanity. A year later, I was divorced.’
In desperation, Sané went back to herbill if he were wrong. And bingo: I was positive for Coxsackie B.’
