World Lupus Day

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For those of you that may not know, this topic is near and dear to my heart. I’ve been diagnosed with lupus myself, as well as some of the other autoimmune diseases. It’s important to identify and treat these diseases as soon as possible in order to prevent damage to your body. In most cases, people spend years and see several different doctors trying to find an answer to explain what’s wrong with them. Please make yourself a priority. Don’t give up. Keep looking and fighting for yourself. It’s important.

World Lupus Day

Today has been designated as World Lupus Day. It’s important that this autoimmune disease be recognized and discussed.  It’s important to recognize the symptoms and to fight for a diagnosis. The longer you’re undiagnosed, the more damage can occur to your body.

What is lupus? It’s a chronic autoimmune disease that can damage any part of your body. Something goes wrong with your immune system and, instead of fighting off viruses, germs, and bacteria (like it’s supposed to do); it fights and destroys your healthy tissue. This causes inflammation, pain, and damage to various parts of your body.

The Lupus Foundation of America estimates that there are currently 1.5 million Americans that have some form of lupus. While this is a widespread disease, awareness of it is way behind many other diseases.

A recent UCLA study found that lupus is among the leading causes of death in young women between 5 and 64 years of age. Often, children and teens are among those most likely to suffer the more severe and life-threatening consequences of the disease.

Currently, only 73% of Americans between 18 and 34 are aware of lupus and most know little about it. This is upsetting because this is the age group that is at the greatest risk of developing lupus. It affects mostly women of child-bearing age.

It’s sometimes difficult to diagnose lupus as it is often called “the great imitator” due to confusion of symptoms with many other things including fibromyalgia, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid disease, Lyme disease, and many more. It is important to be diagnosed as it affects many different parts of your body and can cause significant damage. Lupus can range from mild to life-threatening.

Symptoms may be vague. Symptoms may come and go and new symptoms can pop up and disappear at various times, sometimes even in the same day! Some of the more common symptoms include (but are definitely not limited to):

  • Extreme fatigue (worse than being tired)
  • Headaches (from mild to severe)
  • Painful and/or swollen joints
  • Anemia
  • Swelling (edema) in feet, legs, hands, and/or eyes
  • Sun and/or light sensitivity (photosensitivity)
  • Pain in the chest on deep breathing
  • Fevers
  • Hair loss
  • Rashes
  • Abnormal blood clotting
  • Mouth and/or nasal sores

Some more serious consequences can be attributed to lupus both directly and indirectly (through permanent damage due to inflammation, treatment drugs, etc.). Some of these can include things such as infection, heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure, osteoporosis, and fibromyalgia.  Infections, cardiac conditions, and lupus itself are the 3 top causes of death in lupus patients. It is imperative to identify, monitor, and treat all conditions with a diagnosis of lupus.

Rarely does lupus come alone. Once diagnosed with this autoimmune disease, you are far more likely to develop one or more others. Some of these may include inflammatory arthritis, connective tissue disease, scleroderma, Sjogren’s syndrome, vaculitis, Rheumatoid arthritis, eye problems such as uveitis, Raynaud’s, peripheral neuropathy, and blood count issues. These are just some of the others to look for. This is something to be aware of and follow up with your physician to ensure diagnosis and treatment for each condition.

Please take time and learn a bit more about Lupus. It’s important to learn the facts and to bring any unexplained symptoms to your doctor’s attention.

 

 

 

 

In the Interest of Awareness

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Every month, we are provided information about whatever that month’s “Awareness” campaign is about. How much time do you spend on that? I think it depends on what our interests are and if we know somebody that may be directly affected. If those things don’t apply to you, do you still spend any time looking at this information?

We are inundated daily with facts, suggestions, and ideas to digest. How, then, do we determine which ones we’re going to spend more time on? We only have a limited amount of time to spend on things that aren’t necessarily on our to-do list. I guess it’s what each of us considers to be interesting or enlightening. Where do the monthly “awareness” issues fall on that scale?

It’s obviously important if it affects you directly. It’s likely important enough if it affects a family member or good friend. What about the coworker or neighbor that might be impacted by whatever the awareness month is about? It might not hurt to learn just a little bit about each topic that comes along. It might even inspire a new passion or interest in something you hadn’t been aware of.

Each and every month there are new “awareness” topics. Obviously Breast Cancer awareness in October is a great example and one that most of us are familiar with. This awareness campaign has raised not only money, but interest, compassion and understanding surrounding this topic. Other campaigns have hopes of doing the same. Without awareness, there is no understanding or action.

Social media is hard to stay away from these days. It’s the quickest, easiest way to stay informed. It’s pretty easy to find as much or as little as you want to know about something. The “hot” topics or those most timely are readily available so you don’t have to look very hard to find it. Even if you only spend 15 minutes each month learning about something, you can learn enough to make a difference to somebody.

Please take a few moments each month to learn more about that month’s awareness topic. Your interest, your understanding, and your support can make a world of difference to somebody.

Lupus Awareness Month

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lupus awareness

I’d like to talk about something close to my heart this month.  As some of my readers are aware, I live with a few autoimmune diseases, as do many other people.  Most of these diseases are not easily diagnosed and they are not well-known to the majority of people.   I think most of us have heard the name lupus, but don’t know too much more than that.  This is one reason that it is so critically underfunded.  We need to raise awareness of the symptoms so that more people are diagnosed earlier and are able to seek medical help.  I’d like to have more of us become aware of the impact that lupus and other autoimmune diseases can have on our friends, our family, and our co-workers and how you can help to support them.  This is why I’d like to devote some of my posts this month to the issue.  You will find these (and previously posted) articles under the category of “Chronic Illness”.

There is no cure for lupus.  Many of the medications that are being used to treat the symptoms create significant problems in their own right.  We need awareness and support to find a cure and better treatment options.

By posting a few informational articles, I’m hoping to increase awareness, to inspire support, and to raise interest in the subject.  I am fully aware that this is just one of many causes that we’re all provided information on and we certainly can’t support everything.  In addition to lupus and others, I always support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Heart Association for personal reasons.  It is my hope that you will learn more about lupus and autoimmune disease in order to provide support as well as to help increase awareness.

Thank you for your understanding.

If you read any of the literature and would like to send me a personal question or comment, please contact me from the site (top right corner/contact me) or email me directly at debsordinarylife@gmail.com.

I always love hearing from you and appreciate the comments that you post!