Posts
Getting Diagnosed with Lupus...
I don't remember the date of how it all started but looking back I should have known that something was wrong with me. At 14, I was always tired, after school and it appeared as if I would bruise spontaneously. After what seemed like my 10th false Mono test, the doctors figured that I was depressed, so I was sent to a therapist who after finding me a "normal" 15 year old teenage girl thought my self-esteem would be improved by a nose job. (living in the San Fernando Valley, nose jobs were the answer to many teenagers low self-esteem) however my pre-operative bloodwork came back and my PTT count was abnormal. That's when the diagnostic fun began... the first blood test I was given was a blood time test by a newly certified phlembotomist who had never seen a patient not stop bleeding after 10 minutes, {I know because as a curious patient I asked her} as the staple mark on my forearm leaked blood for 10 minutes then 12... at 14 minutes she ran out of gauze to wipe the blood and called the doctor to ask what to do. Apparently after 8 minutes, she should have put pressure on my arm and stopped the bleeding.
Oh well, that was the beginning, I was tested for anemia, leukemia, cancer and Mono again and again. However, after months and months of waiting for the results of what it was that I had, I knew what I didn't...Lupus, the word to me, reminded me of the baseball movie Bad News Bears, and a runty kid with a perpetual runny nose... but it was finally something. Until it had a name, how could I begin to fight what it was that conquered my body. Now I knew what it was, it was Lupus. (This was before the days of the internet and webmd) So off to the library, we went my mother and I tried to find any books on the disease. The Sun is My Enemy was the only title available. So we checked it out and read the book and realized the outlook wasn't good.
That was years ago... thanks to the bad doctors (that led me to search out and find) the good doctors, the right drugs and a strong belief that as Shakti Gawain says Everything is Unfolding Perfectly.
Be Well. Be Strong.
-originally posted on Facebook 5/24/09
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Good to get to know you. Glad that after all of that, you were finally able to find out just what it was. I had a friend who had lupus, many years ago. I had no idea what it was at the time, as many still do not. Its good that you are spreading the word and the info on it. Best of luck to you!
That is just the craziest thing you spent all those years getting examined by doctors and they couldn't figure out what it was until now. Stay strong!
CheapOair and Woman's World Magazine have teamed up to give away 2 $500 travel gift certificates. I thought this might be of interest to you and your blog readers, and wanted to share. You can find the details at www.cheapoair.com/ww
I'm writing another lupus book. Would you like to take part? leave a message on my blog theladywithlupus.blogspot.com or email me at marilyncmorris@sbcglobal.net
Post a Comment