What is Lupus?

What is lupus?  Thank you for inquiring.  Here are some fast facts about lupus, courtesy of this webpage:  http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Lupus/lupus_ff.asp   I have creatively edited the facts for your interest.

Simply put, lupus is an autoimmune disease wherein your body's immune system, which is designed to attack foreign substances in your body, decides that your own body is a foreign substance and attacks your own healthy cells and tissues. Go figure!  Guess you could call this Superwoman on hallucinogenics.  This can damage many parts of the body such as the:

• Joints
• Skin
• Kidneys
• Heart
• Lungs
• Blood vessels
• Brain  (brain?  uh, isn't that a bad think?  thing?  I forget which)

I have the most common type, systemic lupus erythematosus which affects many parts of the body. Other types of lupus are:

• Discoid lupus erythematosus—causes a skin rash that doesn't go away
• Subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus—causes skin sores on parts of the body exposed to sun
• Drug-induced lupus—can be caused by medications
• Neonatal lupus—a rare type of lupus that affects newborns

Anyone can get lupus, but it most often affects women (as if we don't already have enough on our plate!)  Lupus is also more common in women of African American, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent than in Caucasian women.  I am a Caucasian woman which makes me a rare lupus patient - ask me if I'm happy about that - NO!

The cause of lupus is not known but research suggests that a person's genes in combination with currently unknown environmental exposures triggers the disease.  The symptoms of lupus include :

• Pain or swelling in joints (don't make me move around too much because hearing me say 'ouch, ouch!' a lot gets annoying even to me)
• Muscle pain (all the pain and discomfort of the day after an intense workout with heavy weights but without any of the benefit)
• Fever with no known cause (feels like a never-ending menopausal hot flash)
• Red rashes, most often on the face ( . . . and also on the arms, lets, stomach, etc.)
• Chest pain when taking a deep breath (which makes it soooo fun to, well, simply move around)
• Hair loss (call the plumber, the shower drain is clogged again)
• Pale or purple fingers or toes (ha ha, it really freaks people out when you try to write a check at the grocery store)
• Sensitivity to the sun (say goodbye to those wonderful Hawaiian vacations)
• Swelling in legs or around eyes (at the age of 23 you are buying support hose and boxes of eye cream)
• Mouth ulcers (avoid salty, crunchy, spicy, and any other good tasting foods and settle for mashed potatoes instead)
• Swollen glands (get used to looking like you have a case of the mumps - permanently)
• Feeling very tired (tired?  no.  try exhausted.  similar to the feeling when you initially wake up from invasive surgery in your hospital bed and simply cannot keep your eyes open as your body fights to heal itself and I am NOT exaggerating here)
• Headaches (migraines that last for weeks)
• Dizzy spells (make sure you are near a wall or other supportive item as you maneuver through the office or home)
• Feeling sad (sad?  no.  Hopeless, severely depressed, or sort of suicidal at times but not sad)
• Confusion (simple questions result in the 'deer in the headlights' phenomenon)
• Seizures (may appear as periods of eyes-wide-open non-responsiveness)
• Memory loss (not all bad.  I spent several years believing I was still 39)
• High blood pressure (the doctor will continually ask 'how is your stress level, dear?' as you hold yourself back from punching him in the nose)
• Eye damage and light sensitivity (are the headlights on newer cars really, really bright???)
• Hives (I can't say enough here that it is important to stay out of the @%*&% sunshine or suffer the consequences of a serious case of very itchy hives that last for weeks)
• Stomach and digestive problems (fluctuating symptoms including acid reflux, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, urgent bladder, and more)
  
  ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, and liver conditions, resulting in nausea, vomiting, recurring and persistent abdominal pain, bladder infections, and blood in urine - See more at: http://www.mollysfund.org/learn-about-lupus/symptoms/?gclid=CJXOlZ-0krsCFeNxQgodzjYAEQ#sthash.H10y2bI0.dpuf
  ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, and liver conditions, resulting in nausea, vomiting, recurring and persistent abdominal pain, bladder infections, and blood in urine - See more at: http://www.mollysfund.org/learn-about-lupus/symptoms/?gclid=CJXOlZ-0krsCFeNxQgodzjYAEQ#sthash.H10y2bI0.dpuf
  ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, and liver conditions, resulting in nausea, vomiting, recurring and persistent abdominal pain, bladder infections, and blood in urine - See more at: http://www.mollysfund.org/learn-about-lupus/symptoms/?gclid=CJXOlZ-0krsCFeNxQgodzjYAEQ#sthash.H10y2bI0.dpuf
  ulcerative colitis, pancreatitis, and liver conditions, resulting in nausea, vomiting, recurring and persistent abdominal pain, bladder infections, and blood in urine - See more at: http://www.mollysfund.org/learn-about-lupus/symptoms/?gclid=CJXOlZ-0krsCFeNxQgodzjYAEQ#sthash.H10y2bI0.dpuf

These symptoms may come and go (making living a normal life impossible).

You may need special kinds of doctors to treat the many symptoms of lupus (this means that you will be bounced around from specialist to specialist and required to undergo many, many tests that will try to determine what you do NOT have in order to make the diagnoses of lupus). After visiting innumerable specialists over a period of 20, yes twenty, years, a diagnoses of lupus was finally made and I was relieved and devastated at the same time.  It it is good to know your enemy but when you find out that your enemy is a life-changing, incurable disease you are stunned.  When you tell them, your loved ones and friends are confused.  Lupus?  What is that?  

Tomorrow's blog edition:  Lupus has friends!