Lupus
What is Lupus?
Lupus is a disease that occurs when your body’s immune system attacks your tissues and organs that can potentially damage many parts of the body. Lupus is a serious disease that can affect anyone. Inflammation caused by lupus can affect many different body systems – your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain, heart, and lungs –. Lupus can be difficult to detect because its signs and symptoms often mimic those of other illnesses.
Symptoms!
The most common symptoms of Lupus are:
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- Extreme tiredness
- Headaches
- Fevers
- Anemia
- Painful or swollen joints
- Swelling in feet, legs, hands, and around eyes
- Hair loss
- Fingers turning white and/or blue when cold
- Etc.
No two cases of lupus are the exact same. Most people with lupus have mild disease characterized by episodes. The signs and symptoms of Lupus that occur will depend on which body systems are affected. Lupus is referred to as the “Great Imitator” because of the imitation of other diseases. Lupus is a complicated and unpredictable disease. You don’t know when symptoms will strike or how long a flare could last.
Causes and Complications
The causes of Lupus is unknown, though there are various things – environmental factors, genetics, epigenetics, viruses, and infections – that play a role. Sunlight, infections, and some medicines are some potential triggers. Some things that increase your chances of getting Lupus are your sex, age, and race. Kidney, Brain and Nervous Systems, Blood and Blood Vessels, Lung, and Heart Problems can all occur when dealing with Lupus.
Diagnosis and Treatment
No one test can diagnose Lupus. Diagnosing Lupus is difficult because of the crazy characteristics such as the mimicking of other diseases and different symptoms varying from person to person. There are different tests for diagnosing – Laboratory Tests (complete blood count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, kidney and liver assessment, urinalysis, antinuclear antibody test), Imaging Tests (chest x-ray test and echocardiogram), and Biopsy – which still can’t diagnose Lupus alone. The different medicines that can help – Immunosuppressants, Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, Antimalarial Drugs, Corticosteroids, and Biologics – there are various medicines that are in these categories.
Living with Lupus!
Most people can live a normal life. You should still attempt to pitch in on your health by forming a support system, getting involved in your care, staying active, and avoiding sun exposure. Watching your health and attending all doctor appointments is important. If you experience unusual things in a day you should go to the doctor immediately. Lupus can’t be treated as a minor issue.
Cancer and Pregnancy!
Lupus may cause cancer and pregnancy problems. Women with lupus have a higher risk of miscarriage. If you’re planning on pregnancy it would be best to plan your pregnancy around a time when your lupus flare is at a low. While pregnant attempt to avoid medicines that can harm your baby. If your Lupus is always at a major high then it is best to just use birth control. Lupus increases the risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy.
Other Information!
Lupus is critical yet it isn’t contagious, you can’t catch or give Lupus to anyone around you. People with lupus can learn to manage the disease to minimize its impact on their lives. Sometimes the things people with Lupus don’t do can be just as important as those things they do. Smoking, drinking, and drugs are a bad idea for people with Lupus. Doctors suggest that people with Lupus stay away from Birth Control because of the high dose estrogen. With taking the right medicine and keeping your health up, many teens with Lupus are able to go to school, play sports, and hangout with friends.
Life shouldn’t have to stop because of Lupus, live life while you can but stay cautious with the things that you do. Some people shared there story with Lupus and they are very encouraging and I hope they can encourage others with Lupus.
“Crafting An Artist’s Healthy Future”
“ Emily Olson has always loved drawing, and she wanted to make a living with her art. At 19, she decided to pursue that goal by becoming a tattoo artist. Just six months after she began working at a tattoo shop, however, Emily's hopes for her future appeared to be in jeopardy. Diagnosed four years earlier with lupus, her symptoms began to get progressively worse.
That decline was the beginning of a series of complications that led Emily to Mayo Clinic. Her care team at Mayo guided her through treatment, including a kidney transplant, that allowed Emily to move forward in her life and her career
'I recommend Mayo to anyone who has a serious health issue,' Emily says. 'I feel like if I had gone anywhere else, things would not have turned out as well as they did.'
Lupus is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body's tissues and organs. Over the years, Emily tried to live with the joint pain, rashes, and fatigue that result from the inflammation lupus causes. But one night in January 2017, she was so out of breath trying to go up the stairs in her home in Osceola, Wisconsin, that her mother drove her to the local emergency department. She was diagnosed with pneumonia.
'I didn't think that was right, so the next morning my mom and I drove two-and-a-half hours to the ER at Mayo Clinic in Rochester,' Emily recalls.
Emily's instincts were right. There was much more going on than pneumonia. Tests showed her potassium level to be extremely high, and lab work revealed that her red blood cells and platelets were being destroyed. She was diagnosed with lupus nephritis — an inflammation of the kidneys caused by lupus. Emily was sent to the intensive care unit, where she was seen by Mayo Clinic rheumatology fellow Ali Duarte-Garcia, M.D.” https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2018/10/05/crafting-an-artists-healthy-future/
Emily's story goes on but in the end, I’m glad everything turned out for the better for her. Life is only so long and chronic diseases and other problems have you feeling like life is not worth living but nothing is better than life itself.
References
- Lupus Foundation of America.July 31, 2013. https://www.lupus.org/resources/what-is-lupus
- Lupus Research Alliance. Nov. 16, 2017. https://www.lupusresearch.org/
- Mayo Clinic. Oct. 25, 2017. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lupus/symptoms-causes/syc-20365789
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