Heading for finish line

For years, Connie Emry suffered. She went to multiple doctors and heard many diagnoses. Pain wracked her body. As a child, her permanent teeth fell out. Several times she nearly choked to death.

Her condition perplexed doctors.

Only recently, a visit to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota offered an explanation — Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose because symptoms mimic so many other diseases.

Emry returns to the Mayo Clinic in September for a surgery doctors hope will fix the sleep apnea threatening her life every night. It’s a complicated surgery, requiring doctors to break her jaw and then reset it. Then doctors will break her nose. Not having teeth adds complications to the surgery.

“It’s a big surgery; it’s a risky surgery,” Emry said.

Visiting doctors is not new to her. Last year, she had 10 procedures.

“It’s endless,” she said.

Emry spoke of the disease and the pending surgery on a recent Sunday morning to the congregation of the First Assembly of God Church in Washington. Faith, she says, has sustained her through her trials.

“I have obstructive sleep apnea so bad, I am in the danger zone,” she said.

Following the church service, Emry’s husband, Chuck, pulled the cover off a racecar, a billboard on wheels to raise awareness of the disease that threatens Connie’s life.

“I have Sjogren’s disease,” Connie Emry told the congregation, “and it has taken my entire life to diagnose.”

The disease is not rare, nearly 4 million people have the disease. What is rare is that it is diagnosed properly. Emry’s experience bears this out.

Growing up, she showed symptoms — pink eye that was not contagious, frequent times when she nearly choked to death.

The disease shows up with a lack of moisture to the eyes and throat.

“It’s more than that,” Emry said. “It affects nearly your entire body.”

She lost her thyroid to the disease.

She wants to help people learn about the Sjogren’s. She had her sleek, black Monte Carlo painted to raise that awareness.

The painting on the car is filled with symbolism. The rear quarter panel is emblazoned with a colorful “Sjogren’s Awareness.” The car is No. 53, her age when she was finally diagnosed, and a brilliant cross in front of wings covers the hood, reflecting her belief in God and His role in guiding her through her trials.

“I always see the Lord before me,” she explained as the reason for the cross painted on the car hood.

Tom’s Paint and Body Shop in Mt. Pleasant painted the car.

“My point with the car is to bring awareness,” Emry said. “It took me 53 years to be diagnosed.”

The car has not raced yet.

“I want to; I’m going to,” she said. Chuck, her husband, works on a pit crew at a racetrack in Eddyville. She hopes to drive the car on the first lap of races and possibly in parades.

“Whether I’m in that car or I am not, it is bringing attention to Sjogren’s,” Emry said. “There is a God, and that’s the way God is using me.

“I haven’t died yet, so God is still using me. I’m going to finish the work that He has done in me. I’m going to cross that finish line.”