October Is Lupus Awareness Month
Lupus is a hard to diagnose autoimmune disease, that affects mostly women of child bearing years. This post will address the facts about Lupus – What is it? How is it diagnosed? What are the symptoms? Then you can read about several women who are living with Lupus, and blogging about it.What is Lupus?
About Lupus – Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can affect various parts of the body, including the skin, joints, heart, lungs, blood, kidneys and brain. Normally the body’s immune system makes proteins called antibodies, to protect the body against viruses, bacteria, and other foreign materials. These foreign materials are called antigens.
In an autoimmune disorder like lupus, the immune system cannot tell the difference between foreign substances and its own cells and tissues. The immune system then makes antibodies directed against itself.
Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your own tissues and organs. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems, including your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart and lungs.
Lupus occurs more frequently in women than it does in men, though it isn’t clear why. Four types of lupus exist — systemic lupus erythematosus, discoid lupus erythematosus, drug-induced lupus erythematosus and neonatal lupus. Of these, systemic lupus erythematosus is the most common and serious form of lupus.
The outlook for people with lupus was once grim, but diagnosis and treatment of lupus has improved considerably. With treatment, most people with lupus can lead active lives.
From WomensHealth.gov – What are the symptoms of lupus?
The signs of lupus differ from person to person. Some people have just a few symptoms; others have more. Lupus symptoms also tend to come and go. Lupus is a disease of flares (the symptoms worsen and you feel ill) and remissions (the symptoms improve and you feel better).
Common signs of lupus are:
* painful or swollen joints
* fever with no known cause
* feeling very tired
* skin rashes
* anemia (uh-NEE-me-uh) (too few red blood cells)
* trouble thinking, memory problems, confusion
* kidney problems with no known cause
* chest pain when taking a deep breath
* butterfly-shaped rash across the nose and cheeks
* sun or light sensitivity
* hair lossLess common symptoms include:
* blood clots
* purple or pale fingers or toes from cold or stress
* seizures
* sores in the mouth or nose
* severe headache
* dizzy spells
* “seeing things”, not able to judge reality
* feeling sad
* strokes
Lupus is an autoimmune disease affecting mostly women and causing various effects throughout different parts of the body. Its severity can range from very mild to extremely serious depending on which body organs are afflicted.
Lupus is difficult to diagnose and often misdiagnosed unless there is a characteristic symptom such as the butterfly-shaped rash over the cheeks. There is no single definitive blood test for lupus and doctors have to make the diagnosis based on a variety of symptoms and diagnostic tests. Lupus is one of a group of conditions with vague symptoms such as fatigue or malaise, and may need to be distinguished from fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, depression, Lyme disease, multiple sclerosis, or various other conditions. If the main symptoms are joint symptoms, then various other causes of arthritis need to be considered.
Chantelle was having a rough morning. Her hands were so stiff that she could barely dial the combination on her locker. Then she couldn’t move her fingers well enough to play her clarinet. It seemed that ever since marching band practice had started in the early summer, her hands and feet felt sore in the mornings. She was also tired all the time, and no matter how much she rested, she still felt sleepy and achy all over.
Chantelle told her doctor about her achy hands and feet and how she felt tired all the time. The doctor sent her for blood tests. A few days later, the doctor called and told Chantelle’s dad that she might have lupus.
This Is Lupus…
Here are some courageous women who are blogging with Lupus…
Basically this is meant as a way for me to express my thoughts about being a 27 year-old woman living with Lupus. I’ve had this disease for 11 years now and more than anything else I’d like to be viewed as someone without a disease. I am trying to live my life the best way that I know how. This is the first time I’ve ever written a blog, so please bear with me.
When I was in school, I despised writing or reading for that matter. Writing has become my release since being sick. I can express my thought and feelings on living with a chronic illness. It also helps me be an active advocate for lupus, chronic pain, and fibromyalgia. Its become an important therapy about living with all these chronic illness. Its been my way of making a positive out of a negative. For years I went through periods of being mad at the world because I was sick. I blamed myself and asked over and over “why me”. Its not been easy because I’m not happy what lupus has done to my life. I have periods of not being able to find simple words. I’ve called people crazy names and on a regular basis I call my daughter a cow. Its related to the stroke I had thanks to lupus. If it was not for lupus I probably wouldn’t have found my love of reading and writing. I read almost anything I can get my hands on. I tell my daughter that wisdom comes from knowledge. She’s yet to find my love of writing or reading. But slowly she’s seeing that reading isn’t that bad after all. I share my words with others to say that life after lupus can have some positives even if you do struggle each and every day from the pain and suffering. I live with the thoughts of I’m not going to be a victim of lupus, but a survivor of living with lupus.
The life of a woman living with the auto-immune disease, Lupus. A disease that seems transparent to people around me.
Despite Lupus – Living Well With Chronic Illness
Imagine your life as one big theatrical performance (not too difficult, right?) You are, of course, the star of the show, and those close to you will be playing the requisite supporting roles. Now assign Lupus a role in the production – that of stagehand. Lupus’ job is to be as inconspicuous as possible: to stay behind the scenes, disrupt nothing, and if movement is necessary, attempt to blend in with the scenery. You give this very special, important role to your disease, not because you necessarily want it around, but because you know it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Acknowledging that it’s a part of the play, and giving it a job to handle will hopefully keep it busy and out of your way, allowing you to give your best all-time performance.
As you act out the scenes in your life, ask yourself the following: is what I’m about to do going to allow Lupus to upstage me? Will my disease, who’s supposed to be waiting idly behind stage, have an opportunity to run across stage, leaping and bounding and causing a scene? For example, if you work extra late, or refuse to go to the doctor, will you be encouraging Lupus to crash the scene? Keep these things in mind as you go about your daily performances and allow yourself to be the center-stager you’re meant to be!
October is Lupus Awareness Month
So, as you may or may not know, I have several auto-immune diseases; one of them being SLE Lupus. Lupus is rediculously under-researched, and astonishingly, no one talks about this disease. If you knew the facts, you would understand why I say this. Well, let me just fill you in… (Most of these facts are from the lupus.org, cure4lupus.org, and my own research.)
The Life of a 20-Something With Lupus…
I’m just a normal 26 year old woman…except for the fact that I have Lupus. I gotta admit..it’s not easy. I deal with constant chronic anemia, joint pain, kidney disease…even home dialysis 5 nights a week. But Lupus certainly doesn’t define who I am.
Also See:
Chronic Chick Talk – Lupus and It’s Lies Poem
Are you living and blogging about Lupus? Is so, I hope you’ll leave me your link in comments.
Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
at Catherine-Morgan.com, The Political Voices of Women, Care2 Election
