Welcome Kas

[Guest guest]

Hi Kas, Welcome to our group! (If I already welcomed you, forgive me, I have a lot of memory loss).

My name is Cheryl. I have had Lupus since I was a teen. I had fatigue a lot of the time. I had a lot of stomach problems. I would wake up all dizzy & sick to my stomach. I broke out is open sores. I had bladder and kidney trouble. I had little blood vessels all over my chest burst and had red spots all over it. None of the Dr's had a satisfying explanation. When I got older and had a baby, my hair started falling out & I was so tired I couldn't always get up with the baby. I ached all over. Four years later I had another baby and felt even worse. I literaly couldn't get out of bed at all. I had to have the baby put in the bed with me and have all the cloths and diapers etc. pilled on the bed with me. I practically crawled to the bathroom. I lost hair and ached all over. I got hominoids and never got rid of it. I could never understand why I was so doggone tired all the time for years. My joints started hurting more and more through the years. I went to a general practitioner and told him I thought I had arthritis. He showed him my hands. He was 73 years old! He said you think that's bad, look at my hands! I was about 40! A few years later I was walking my dog and realized my hips, knees and elbows hurt real bad. I held the leash in my left hand & had my dog trained to walk nicely by my side. She never pulled the leash. Just the act that my elbow was bent hurt like crazy. I told my husband that night that I thought I had arthritis and decided to see a Rheumatologist. I finally got the right dx. It was a shock but I was glad to be told I was not a hypochondriac, it was a relief to know my pain and fatigue was real. I had so many Dr's tell me I was just nervous, and even had one tell me I thought too much about myself. I went home and looked up lupus in the dictionary. It said it was a fatal disease! Yiiks! It turned out that I was looking at a real old book. There have been a lot of advancements made through the years. One of them is the fact that they didn't used to recognize lupus until someone was so ill they were practically dead. Dr's catch it a lot earlier now. When I told my mom I had lupus she cried. The only person she knew who had it died! Well, I joined a lupus support group headed by a dr. and got lots of info from the lupus foundation. I learned everything I could. I read books and papers. Joined the Lupus Foundation. Yes, I did see a couple of friends in the group die but most of us live a long life with help from meds. We don't have a support group nearby in the town I now live. This group is a help to me. There is a lot of info here. Keep reading.

-------Original Message-------

My name is Kasandra, my friends call me Kas, and my life partner(Peggy) was just diagnosed 3 weeks ago with Lupus. We are trying to get a handle on what she can and cant do, and where to go from here. Im 28 and she turned 40 yesterday. Im hoping to get knowledge from people such as yourselves

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