Being a student-athlete requires time-management skills, but for Adelphi senior first baseman Christina O’Hara, it also means struggling with a painful and potentially debilitating disease.

O’Hara has been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis, a condition characterized by joint weakness and dry, scaly skin. For O’Hara, it primarily affects her hips, shoulders and thumbs – not ideal for playing softball.

Before the diagnosis, O’Hara took cortisone shots for the joint pain, but the relief was only temporary. After visiting more than a half dozen doctors, including an infectious disease specialist to consider whether she was suffering from Lyme disease, a rheumatologist finally identified the affliction.

The disease usually manifests itself in someone twice O’Hara’s age, part of the reason the diagnosis may have been overlooked. She now self-administers injections to reduce the pain and takes an anti-inflammatory to help with swelling. Even with those aids, though, O’Hara has to work through some discomfort – and playing softball every day doesn’t always make things better.

O’Hara missed the fall 2008 season due to excruciating pain before the diagnosis that November. The pain was so bad in fact that she could barely walk. That led to back problems because she was compensating for the pain in her hips. “The summer was miserable. I didn’t want to go anywhere because I would get so tired and it was difficult to walk,” O’Hara said.

She said the doctors couldn’t really explain how she came to have this disease, though they said genes can play a role. People with psoriasis have a higher rate of arthritis, and stress exacerbates the condition, O’Hara said. Of course, her rigorous schedule does not help, but that doesn’t stop O’Hara.

In addition to being a starting first baseman on the Adelphi softball team, O’Hara is a double major in physical education and health. Now in her senior year, she is student-teaching as well.

A typical schedule includes student-teaching from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Salk Middle School in Levittown, New York. Then it’s practice from 3 to 5 p.m. And on some nights she has classes from 6 to 10 p.m. “If it’s a game, I won’t get home until after 8:30, and then I am up at 6 a.m. to start all over again,” she said.

Playing first base is the best place for O’Hara, since the position requires mostly front and back movement. “It’s the lateral movement that gets you,” O’Hara said. “So it’s better to be here than at other positions. Just throw the ball to me and I’ll catch it.”

O’Hara has started 39 of 42 games and currently has a .989 fielding percentage with 259 putouts. She is batting .278 and two weeks ago blasted four home runs in three games, including two in an East Coast Conference win over Queens (New York).

Psoriatic arthritis isn’t the first setback for O’Hara, who missed her freshman season because of knee surgery. Because of that, she does have another year of eligibility but she doesn’t plan to use it. “It would be too hard on my body,” she said. “Plus, I came in with the other seniors and I want to leave with them, too.”

O’Hara plans to pursue a career in education as a teacher. Her student-teaching should be done in early June and she is actively searching for a position.

And so she continues on with the hope that not only will her team advance into the NCAA tournament, but that she will continue to fight through her physical adversity. Not an easy life, but she’s not about to change it. “I am getting through it,” O’Hara said. “It’s not an option to quit.”

Suzette McQueenis the assistant athletics director for external affairs and media relations and the senior woman administrator at Adelphi University.