Lupus is not a diagnosis that anyone wants to hear come from their doctor’s mouth. It’s not very well understood by most and although it can be comforting to know the reason for your symptoms, it can be downright terrifying to think about your future. Lupus is a condition of ups and downs, sometimes extreme downs, but it is possible to live a happy, full life while also living with lupus.
What we call lupus is really a collection of manifestations of an imbalanced immune system that has led to out of control inflammation. There are some predictable lab and antibody tests as well as commonly seen symptoms that allow us to group people under the wide lupus umbrella, but the truth is, most lupus patients are very individual with nuances that are specific to them. For that reason it is dangerous to compare one’s lupus to someone else’s and why internet stories of “curing lupus” have to be taken with a giant grain of salt.
[Read more…] about What you need to know about Lupus – Pt 2