Lupus

A few years ago I visited and sat with my sister in law while she was in the ER at the hospital on Easter Sunday. Lori was covered in a rash from head to toe but it was not just any rash, it looked as if someone had taken hot water and poured it on her, burning her. She was in pain and very uncomfortable. At this point no one knew what the issue was only later to learn after several test that Lori had Lupus.

Lori has endured a lot during the process of learning to live with Lupus. She has her good days and she has her bad days. There are those days that she can't move, either from the pain or the lack of energy. She has had to learn to be careful about being in the sun, either working in the yard or even just riding in the car.

Not sure how she was able to deal with just being told she had Lupus. I guess at some point it was a relief to have an answer to a lot of things but also a fear of the unknown and what she will have to face. I can relate to this fear a bit more now.

In April I noticed a spot, no bigger then the tip of my finger on my right cheek. Since I have lived all my life with skin allergies (eczema), I was not concerned. After treating that spot with neosporin, cortaid, herbal lotions and other stuff and it was not clearing up, I decided that I needed to have it checked. To the doctors office I went (in July) and was told that she needed to send me to a dermatologist that she thought it was keratosis. The appointment was made and I was still not worried.

First appointment I was told that it looked like a fungus (yuck) and I was sent home with some cream to put on the spot for two weeks. Even though a sample was looked at under the microscope and there was not but a couple of spores, they still thought it was a fungus. I used the cream for 2 weeks, at first the spot seemed to get better then towards the end of that two weeks, it spot got worse. It ended up being the size of a quarter, red and itching.

Back to the dermo dr. and a biopsy was done. A week later the nurse calls to tell me that I have skin LUPUS. What? Where did that come from? Nothing was said about possiby being skin lupus. The nurse kept telling me that I needed to be sure and keep the follow up appointment.

Next appointment was for the dr. to take 5 tubes of blood. They stressed that it could be internal lupus also. Now....the scare was there. Almost 3 weeks till the results came in to find out that I do not have internal lupus (thank God) but the fact still remains, I do have skin lupus.

Not a lot can be done except to treat the rash when it breaks out and I was told that it will happen again. No telling where, when or how large. The good thing is that even though it is not rare to develope internal lupus if you have skin lupus, the chances are not high. I have to apply sunscreen daily and I have to be careful of the sun, just like Lori.

Scared....no. Pissed...yes. One more thing to add to my list health issues, but I am thankful that it is not full blown Lupus.

Thanks for stopping in,



Comments

Unknown said…
I will pray for you Pam : ( I am sorry for this extra stress in your life. Doesn't it always seem like there is something?

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