Mother of two spends 24 years battling lupus

[Guest guest]

Mother of two spends 24 years battling lupus

By LINDA REDFERN, For The Capital

The Sunday Capital asked readers if they had medical stories they

wanted to share with other readers. This is another installment in that

series.

My life began to mysteriously change 24 years ago.

I started feeling sluggish and sleeping most of the time. My second

son, , had just been born, so I attributed the tiredness to

working, taking care of two children, exercising and teaching aerobics.

A few times, I almost fell asleep at the wheel and asked my boss if I

could use his office during lunch to rest or sleep on his couch.

What was wrong with me? I wanted to know.

Slowly, I became achier, more tired and started running low-grade

temperatures. The doctors could not fine anything wrong.

They suggested resting and slowing down on the aerobic teaching, but I

still felt drained and achy.

After several attempts to find out what was the problem, one doctor

suggested admitting me to the local hospital. Reluctantly, I ended up

in the hospital for a week. Comments from doctors where like, " You are

the healthiest person we've ever seen " and " You are so strong, but you

are sick. "

Finally, one smart dermatologist suggested taking a biopsy of my arm,

which now had a rash on both forearms. The result: lupus.

Lupus was a nightmare. I slowly started to gain excessive weight

because of the 80 mg daily of prednisone that makes you ravenous but is

successful in getting lupus under control.

I had no clue as to what lupus was. However, I told a few people and

they looked at me like I was the kiss of death. People had me dying. I

read as much as I could on the disease; however, even the books had me

preparing for my funeral.

Exercising most of my life, I refused to let this disease take over me

and tried to continue my daily routines.

I wanted to empower myself and take control, but the lupus was doing a

number on me. Not only was the lupus taking over, I was now a single

parent with two kids and a size 12 / 14. I had always been a size 7.

I had my ups and downs with the illness. I tried a naturopathic doctor,

but that became too expensive since insurance did not cover

naturopathic care. The regular doctors tested different drugs with me.

However, I had severe reactions to most, especially one which generated

sores in my mouth and a terrible rash.

Another sickly episode resulted in my favorite doctor, who I will never

forget, coming to my house (can you believe house calls in this day and

age?) because I was too sick to move. He did blood work at my house,

called my mom and told her to get right up here and help take care of

these kids. Boy, was I sick.

I was a very proud black woman and I never had to ask anyone to come

help me do anything.

In the meantime, I was still working and coping with the lupus. One

grueling day at work, my boss looked at my hands where my fingers had

now become ulcerous with open sores. I was embarrassed as it was, but

he looked at my hands and said, " What is wrong with you. They look

awful. " I was devastated. Needless to say, he is no longer employed at

the location.

Finally, after reading, changing my diet, still exercising and lowering

the dosage of prednisone, my lupus is under control. It has been 24

years, a fluctuation of weight gains and losses, fevers, achiness,

rashes, change in appearance and much more.

As a black woman, one lasting result of lupus that is an embarrassment

to me is the white patches and spots that now appear on my skin.

I have started " juicing " every morning. I get up extra early to cut up

apples, oranges, celery, spinach, carrots and any other vegetables and

fruits I may have. The fruits and vegetables go in my huge juicer and I

have a large glass every morning before I start the day. This includes

my ritual of taking several vitamins and minerals in addition to the

supplement DHEA, which is depleted from the body as we get older.

Occasionally, I still get extremely tired and just have to rest for the

day to make me feel better. I am now 53 years old, still taking a low

dose of prednisone, exercising at least five times per week, working as

a successful Realtor ( I put in at least 50-hour weeks, most weeks), my

kids are grown and I am about to be remarried in December to a

wonderful man I met on the Internet, who calls me " his little

Dalmatian. "

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Redfern lives in the polis area.

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2005/04_03-40/LIF