Trevor Bayne, the 2010 Daytona 500 winner at the age of 20, announced Tuesday he has multiple sclerosis (MS). He was being diagnosed with the degenerative disease in June, The Associated Press reported.
Bayne, 22, first experienced symptoms in 2011 when he felt nauseous, fatigued, experienced double vision, and had numbness in his arm. But -- as can happen with the extremely unpredictable nature of MS -- the symptoms vanished and haven't returned since. Still, he remained adamant in discovering what exactly happened to him two years ago. Frequent visits to the May Clinic finally led to an answer last June, according to The AP.
"I think MS takes time to diagnose and, as a doctor, you don't want to jump right in and give a diagnosis to somebody," Bayne said. "I think a smart doctor is going to continue to do things. Obviously, it's a different kind of condition than something where you can just see it immediately, so over time they just evaluate you and the doctors just run a bunch of different tests."
Because Bayne's symptoms haven't returned, doctors have cleared him to continue racing, as he's been doing since taking a brief absence in 2011, The AP reported. On its website page about MS, the Mayo Clinic maintains that most people with the disease can lead a full life, though Bayne's is obviously a unique case. If the symptoms do return -- and that may never happen, according to the site -- it remains to be seen how the young driver will manage his career.
The onset of Bayne's system coincided with an insect bite on the same arm he experienced numbness, leading him to believe he had lyme disease. In fact, that was what he told interviewers that season to explain his leave of absence, according to The AP.
He's still not sure if the bite was in any way related or possibly contributed to his condition. No two MS cases are the same, according to Mayo Clinic's information page, though research connecting insect bites and MS is mostly confined to forums.
MS is an incurable disease that attacks the nervous system and ranges in intensity. Symptoms typically worsen with time though they can be controlled through treatment. Most sufferers are diagnosed between the ages of 20 to 40, according to the Mayo Clinic. Bayne doesn't receive treatment because he doesn't currently have any symptoms.
Bayne isn't a stranger to the disease; his sister, Sarah, also has it, The AP reported. Though MS isn't technically a hereditary disease, sharing genes with someone who has the condition makes one more likely to also have it, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Roush Fenway Racing President Steve Newmark, whose company sponsors Bayne, said his persistence and standing as an athlete helped him finally reach an answer.
"I think that it was refreshing that he actually got a diagnosis because there had been some uncertainty about what had unfolded previously, so I know it was comforting to him and that's why he pursued it so strongly," Newmark said. "The reality of it is if Trevor wasn't a race car driver and didn't have the means, he probably would never have been diagnosed at this point. It was through his determination of just regularly getting checked that it came to light."
Bayne, a devout Christian, said he'd decided to go public with his condition to help others.
"Why not help other people through their struggles and point them in the right direction?" Bayne said. "For me, I feel like that's what I'm called to do, so why be silent about it and why just sit back on our heels and not do anything? I'm a race car driver, that's what I do, but it's not all of who I am."
