Thanks For all your responses

[Guest guest]

Athena, Welcome. Where do you hail from? I live in No. California, about 50miles from San Francisco. I am the single, used-to-be-working, adoptive mother of four, grandmother of two, and

with two youngest sons still at home to raise. Not a cinch, by any stretch of the imagination. LOL

I was dx'd with SLE, RA, Sjogren's, chronic Lyme's, chronic Myofibrositis, anemia, non-insulin dependent Diabetes, and various and sundry other little gems between the ages of 30 and 45. My

symptoms, however, began when I was ten years old. It took more than 30 years for my docs to

take the word "suspect" off my chart where it mentioned SLE. My blood work was off again, on again, but my symptoms were always there. You will find that most of us in the group have very

colorful medical histories, some of us waited years for diagnosis, and all of us are in one phase of

treatment or another. But, Lupus is not longer the instant death sentence it once was, and there are

new treatments being discovered all the time, so don't lose hope. As a nurse, you would know this

better than most.

For up to the minute information on diagnoses, treatments, family support ideas, etc. take a look

at our 's webpage which is listed on the Lupies main board once you sign in. I believe you will find the members to be intelligent, well informed, caring and supportive, and in spite of it all, still

willing to tell a good joke, be there for each other, and most importantly, listen when you need to

talk. Feel free to join any conversation going on, and if you post a message and you don't get an

immediate response, please remember that even the owners/moderators are also Lupus patients,

and may not be immediately available, BUT, someone will get back to you, and if we don't know the

answer to your questions, we almost always know where to find the information you are seeking.

Again, welcome. Hugs, MM aka: Mike, one of the moderators

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone I am Peggy but I go by {Athena}Always hated The name

peggy..lol.. Wow where do I start? I just found out I have lupus

what a way to bring in my 40th Birthday 3/26/ I started having

fatgiue pretty bad, and also running a fever over 102. and night

sweats for about 5 months, so I went to see my pcp tho its been

since 97 that I had a real blood test we decided it was time.

once everything came in we seen that I was Hypothyroid and we

started meds, about 4 days into the synthroid I broke into a rash,

we stoped that, seem we tried at least 3 and I would just feel worse.

last one I ended up in the ER with blood spots all up and down both

arms and down both legs. ER Dr says this would'nt be coming from the

thyroid meds.. So he oreded more Blood test.. God I feel like my

arms have no more places to be poked..LOL... test came back with a

platelet count of 58 the ER Dr said noting to me about this but

being I'm a Nurse I knew something wasn't right. Thank god for the

Dr I do work for I showed her all my labs and she was " you need to

address this ASAP " and called one of her friends who is a

Rheumatologist and another DR who is a Hematologist/oncologist

I'm at this point thinking What the hell is going on, tho I'm not a

Dr I just didnt see what this was nor did I want to now I know all

the truth.. but thats about what has lead me here I got back all the

test as of a week ago seen the Spec and she has confirmed it to be

Lupus!..Questions wow am I full of them I want so many of them I

hope everyone can inlight me on this and give me some peace of

mind...

Thanks for your support

Athena