Adversity makes Seimone's family even closer

From The Times-Picayune's Rachel Whitaker:

The relationship between Seimone and Seymore Augustus encompasses more than just that of a father and daughter.

They grew stronger through the most adverse of times in the past year, when they both faced illness and injury obstacles.

Seimone Augustus, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 WNBA draft by the Minnesota Lynx, tore her ACL in a June 2009 WNBA game against the Phoenix Mercury, after a collision with Mercury forward Diana Taurasi.

A devoted daughter who learned to play basketball through rigorous training in her driveway with her father, she received worse news during her knee rehabilitation -- her father had multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease in which the brain and spinal cord in the central nervous system degenerate. There is no cure for the disease.

Early warning signs he suffered were blurred vision, stiff muscles and struggling to walk on his own.

Common symptoms that evolve in multiple sclerosis patients include fatigue, speech and swallowing problems, tremors, muscle spasms and dizziness.

Seimone, 26, said it was crushing to be apart from her father while he was sick and she was rehabbing her knee.

"For the first three months I wasn't able to walk, and the doctor said I couldn't go visit my dad until I wasn't on crutches and didn't have a limp, " she said. "But I knew I had to be stronger, because he was always the strong one in our family."

It was difficult for Seymore Augustus to come to grips with the realization that he would have to stop working and rely on his family for care.

He said he had to go to therapy to learn to walk again.

"I have lesions on my brain; it's rough stuff, " he said. "With (multiple sclerosis), you have good days where you can feel healthy, and the next day you'll be in a lot of pain. I wouldn't wish it on anybody."

He said his wife, Kim, was the rock he and Seimone needed when they were at their weakest points.

"Without my wife, neither of us would have made it, " he said. "At times I couldn't even pick up toilet paper. (Seimone and I) both got depressed because we were used to working all our life."

Kim Augustus said one way the family bonded was becoming educated on multiple sclerosis.

She said Seymore is in the "relapsing-remitting" stage of the disease, meaning he suffers unpredictable attacks, or "exacerbations, " of symptoms for periods ranging from a few days to weeks, followed by recovery of some functions. Recovery can take weeks or even months.

"None of us knew what he was going to go through in the months and years to come, so we spend a lot of time sitting and talking about the literature we read, " Kim Augustus said. "We found out in the last couple of months that taking Vitamin D helps along with his medication."

Seymore said when Seimone is away playing in the WNBA or overseas, they often use Skype to communicate, fostering the relationship they developed when Seimone was young.

Seimone said her father was the first basketball coach she ever had. She played volleyball, soccer and T-ball as a child, but she fell in love with basketball, and her father committed her to excel on the court.

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Posted by Bob Starkey