"Waltons" Star Battles Lupus

Mary McDonough blames breast implants for disease

By Elizabeth Johns Apr 02, 1997 2:00 AMTags
Actress Mary McDonough, best known as "Erin Walton" on the long-running CBS series The Waltons, will portray a lupus patient on the May 1 episode of ER. It's a role she knows all too well.

The actress suffers from the autoimmune disease--and thinks it started from breast implants she had inserted 10 years ago. "I do believe there is a link to implants...mine were totally disintegrated when I had them removed three years ago," she said today.

"I'm feeling much better," McDonough says. "I mean I used to go to physical therapy, lay on the table and cry...It's been a battle." Now the actress says she's committed to getting the message about the little-known disease out to the public.

Lupus is a disease of the connective tissues that affects the body's immune system. "Your body basically becomes allergic to itself and develops antibodies," McDonough says. Symptoms, called flare ups, include rashes, arthritis, fatigue, joint stiffness, swelling and pain. The disease can affect the organs, damaging a person's kidneys, heart and lungs.

"I have mild lupus, my organs are not affected," McDonough says. But she still gets frequent infections, stays out of the sun to avoid an allergic reaction and watches for fatigue.

"It took a very long time for me to be diagnosed," the actress says. Homeopathic and Chinese herbal treatments have worked for McDonough, she says, as well as meditation. "But I also take anti-inflammatory medication."

McDonough says she's not anti-implant but feels "women need the correct information in order to make their own decisions. I didn't know the consequences then...women have that information now."

With her health improving, McDonough can now concentrate on the roles she's been looking for. She rejoined her famous TV family last weekend for A Walton Easter. She's also guest-starred on an episode of Promised Land and, in addition to the ER, spot has a feature film, One of Those Nights, in the works. She plays the wife in a marital comedy. "It's a fun, risqué role, very different for me."