My mom was diagnosed with Lupus back when I was in middle school. Looking back, it all made sense. Every time we went outside when I was a child everyone would always comment on how red she was. She wasn’t sunburnt, she was just red. It mainly affects her face (hint: Lupus butterfly rash) but it will also affect her chest and upper arms. She also had quite a few hip problems, and no one could really figure out what was going on. She was finally referred to a rheumatologist after some funky lab work. She was soon diagnosed with Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Her lupus mainly affects her joints and some doctors believe she also has RA.
Flash forward a couple years and I began having problems with occipital neuralgia and chronic migraines. The first neurologist I saw did some thorough lab work to see if there was something causing it that we didn’t know about. When we got the results,my antinuclear antibodies were elevated, and I had a homogeneous pattern. They wanted me to go see a rheumatologist and so I went and saw the same on as her. My very first appointment he wanted to diagnose me with arthritis, but I refused to accept the diagnosis and blamed it on gymnastics (I was a gymnast for 14 years prior). Three years later and in college and I started seeing a new rheumatologist in my college town and finally accepted my initial diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis. She did not diagnose me with Lupus but she went ahead and started me on Plaquenil to slow the progression because between my lab work and my mom’sdiagnosis there was no doubt I would shortly be following her path and we wanted to slow it down as much as we could. Since then I began getting the butterfly rash which we weren’t sure if it was related to my Trigeminal Neuralgia or Lupus. I didn’t agree with several things that she wanted to do so I switched doctors and am now seeing one at UTSW where I was officially diagnosed with SLE and Nonspecific immunological findings in addition to the arthritis. While I wouldn’t wish this diagnosis on anyone, I am glad I am going through it with my mom. She is ahead of me in the progression of the disease, so I know what the future holds for me. This help me mentally prepare for the future and cope with it. We have both been on several medications so we can compare our experiences and together we figure out what will be best for each of us. Wouldn’t want to go through this with anyone else! |
Categories
All
|