How it all begain Part two

Ok, not doing too well today, but the Blog must go on......

I went to see this specialist in the town about 50 miles from where I live, I really like this Doctor by the way, but that doesn't mean I don't get frustrated with her. On my first visit, she spent over an hour with me. She explained a little bit about Lupus and how it affects each person differently. I took all the information she gave me, that I could retain, in stride and thought that doesn't sound to bad. Ha, ha, that is ignorance for ya!

She began the exam, pressing on points of my body that made me wince and in some spots, cry out in pain. She looked very concerned, NOT A GOOD SIGN, and said "you not only have Lupus, and R.A., but you also have strong signs of Fibromyalgia." My Mom had Fibro and I was not happy with the diagnosis at all. (Little did I know then, it would be the least of my affliction).

So with this, I racked up a large bill, had two prescriptions to fill, labs to get drawn, an x-ray, and a follow up appointment in 3 months. One of the prescriptions was for steroids and the other was for treatment of Malaria. I thought "what the hell?" This medication was one of the more frequent drugs used to treat Lupus, seeing that it suppressed the immune system, I found out by doing research.

About two weeks later, I had gained over 30 pounds and was sick again. I could not get in to see my specialist and proceeded to see my regular doc. I walked into the room, face and appendages so swollen I could hardly move and the doc looked at me and said "what can I do for you today?" (I thought, are you blind????) I was so frustrated with her and her treatment of me, I fired her shortly thereafter. This was not a "take two aspirins and call me in the morning" thing. I hurt....I couldn't work, function as a mom, wife, or as a person. I wanted help and I figured if I was paying for it, I should have gotten some and not just a note stating I needed to be excused from work, was she going to excuse me from life too? I was red hot, if you couldn't tell.

As the weeks went on and the hurting subsided, I dug in for information on Lupus, sometimes I wish I hadn't, oh my what a list of what it can do to your body! I found out that there are three kinds of Lupus. I have Systemic Lupus (sle) but there is one that you can get from taking medications and another that infants get.

So, I opened the list of "information on SLE" geeeeez! There was pages and pages of information, I stopped there for fear of the truth. Yes, I am a chicken, I didn't really want to know all this stuff at first, it was scary enough as it was to know my body basically was waring against itself. This was a mistake on my part for sure.

Stay tuned for tomorrows blog...... Lupus, gave me a scare that went straight to my heart.