Dealing With Lupus Part 1

So, I was sixteen... I kept having wierd things happening with my body. My salivary glands would swell up so bad that I looked like I had mumps and the pain, the pain was horrible. They'd hurt worse when I'd eat and I was already too skinny. I'd also have random boughts of pink eye, allergies so bad that my eyes would itch until I rubbed them raw, and if I pet a cat, I'd almost instantly have ring worm. My parents were at a loss. They'd taken me to just about every doctor in our small town and nobody had answers. My mom finally took me to her doctor, who lived in an even smaller town (he even raised llamas!). We live in Idaho, which at the time,was probably a quarter of the population it is now. Her doctor ran some blood tests on me and then we waited. By this time, I was seventeen and a junior in high school. We finally got some answers though. My now, llama raising doctor, figured out that I may have some sort of an autoimmune disease and he thought it was Lupus. He referred me to a pediatric rheumatologist at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. By this time, I was so sick and anemic, the doctors were very worried and told me to pack a bag because I could be in Salt Lake for a while. I had a very rough go at first. By the time we made it to Salt Lake City, I could hardly move and my mouth had become so raw, I couldn't eat. The doctor ran tons of tests and I felt like a lab rat. The U is a teaching hospital, so my room was surrounded by my parents, the students, and the doc. It was pretty scary as a seventeen year old girl. I didn't have to stay on Utah, thankfully. The downfall was they did come to the conclusion that I had SLE Lupus and another autoimmune disease called Sjrogens, which causes you to have a severely dry mouth (which is what caused my mouth to be so raw & my eyes so itchy). They sent me home with several prescriptions to fill and off we went. We were glad to finally have some answers. One of the prescriptions I had to take was prednisone. For those of you that don't know it, it is a steroid. They put me a very high dose and the side effects really set in.... paranoia, insomnia, weight gain, and best of all, "moon face. Your face pretty much retains water so your face looks fat. It was really fun as a young teenage girl. I did miss a couple months of school, because I was so anemic and could hardly get out of bed, but I stayed caught up at home. When I did go back to school, it was tough. Lupus was not a well known disease at the time, so it was hard to explain it. Plus I had this wierd fat face and an extra twenty pounds on my 90 pound body (built like my grandma & great grandma, who was 90 pounds her entire life, even after having ten kids!)! Thankfully, I stayed strong and I have the Lord to thank for that. My loving parents raised me up to know Jesus Christ and with Him, I probably wouldn't be alive today. I'm going to stop here for now, but there's a bunch more to come. If anyone out there has Lupus or any other medical issues, feel free to contact me if you are feeling down or just need a friend and a prayer. “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13. “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit …” Ephesians 6:14-18