Hi everyone!

[Guest guest]

Hi! Thanks for the welcome. :0) In a way I guess I kind of am or was. I'm not sick, but my parents are, so my sister, brother and I am trying to help them as much as we can. My mom isn't doing too well right now, she has Lupus the SLE form and is having some complications from it. She hasn't had too much trouble for a while, then all of a sudden she was having some trouble so she had to go back to the doctor. It's actually kind of weird how her Lupus started. She started having awful trouble with her back and her joints started to hurt more than usual, at first we didn't think too much of it because arthritis runs in our family so we thought it was just that. It started all with her having trouble with her back, finally once that seemed to ease up she started having trouble with her wrist and was told it was carpal tunnel. Just little things like that kept happening, after a while the doctors couldn't really pinpoint what exactly was

happening and some even said it could be psychological. My mom thought after a while that maybe she was going crazy, but we knew that wasn't true, there was something definitely wrong with her its just that none of the doctors could seem to find it. We finally found one who did and thats when we found out it was Lupus. She was diagnosed in '99. She was one meds and everything seemed to be pretty good for quite a while, but recently she started having awful back problems and wasn't doing well at all. We took her back to the doctor and found out that her spine is narrowing and she has a disinigrating disk in her back. She has had trouble with her leg for a while too, it just gives out on her or goes numb, but they said because of the disk, its pressing on a nerve so that could be it. A few days ago she went back to the doctor, and now they are saying that she could have kidney stones. The doctors is checking her kidneys too, because there was a test that came back she wanted to run

again. We're hoping it will come back alright this time. She is back on her meds again and it seems to help a little. The ones she was taking for her back though quit working after two weeks, I don't know if that has to do with the Lupus or not, but she went through this before, meds only work for so long and then they don't do anything. She is also on medicine for her thyroid because it doesn't work right. My mom was also on a steroid for a while, but since then she has lost her sense of taste and smell. It was like a nasal spray type and its been a couple years since she could smell or taste. So she has had a pretty rough time its just one thing after another, but she is doing the best she can. The stress don't help any, but there isn't much we can do to control that because stuff happens. My dad has been sick too for about 14 years. He has emphysema and diabetes. With him its hard too because its like a roller coaster, sometimes he is fine and then the next he could

be sick for a couple days or weeks and then he will be ok again. Thats how it is with my mom too. With my dad he has had other problems too and he has had congestive heart failure a few times, we almost lost him the last time so we are really lucky to have him with us. Besides that other relatives we had to deal with their illnesses. My grandma became terminally ill with cancer, so my parents and siblings all helped take care of her and we had hospice helping us. That was from '96-'98. My grandpa had had some sugeries and was ill for a bit before he died in '04 of a massive heart attack. Then my other grandma had a heart attack last year, and had to have surgery an two stents put in. We are extremely thankful for her because we almost lost her as well, but we are very thankful she made it through and is doing so well now. I'm sorry for babling on, I just get talking and I could go on for a long time. lol By the way, I don't really have any illness

or anything, but I do have arthritis. I have it in both of my knees. I've had it since I was little, I am a little overweight so I know that don't help it, but I'm working on that too. Can't wait to talk more with you all. Welcome to the group Abby, I'm Helen, 55, from NW Ohio... I take it your a care giver??? That in itself is a hard job to do... Vent on here as much as you need to, we have other care givers on here also... Or are you dealing with an ailment also??? I have a few I deal with... There are a lot of nice folks on here from all over the world and all sorts of ailments... Let us know how you cope with your days...(((Welcoming Hugs )))Helen

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