1.5 Million Faces

Because many symptoms of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) mimic those of other illnesses, lupus can be a difficult disease to diagnose. The diagnosis of lupus is based off of a combination of physical symptoms and laboratory results and for most people is not a one time diagnosis. More often than not it is a diagnosis that evolves over time either towards more certainty that a person does or does not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of lupus.*

We are doctors, wives, singers, mothers, fathers,actors, lawyers, writers, artists, husbands, brothers, sisters, friends, grandmothers, grandfathers, children, bankers, lovers, nurses, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We come from all walks of life with one thing in common: We are the 1.5 million faces of Lupus.

Lupus is a very hard disease to have. It's  hard to get diagnosed, it's hard to treat, and it's hard to live with. The medications and treatments we take help us and harm us simultaneously. One day we are fine, the next we are bedridden. Sometimes we feel like we are burdens to our loved ones, it's enough to make you think you're going crazy.

We aren't crazy and we are not burdens. Lupus is the burden that we carry.  Lupus has forced us to give up things we love like the Sun, walking, running, dancing, and spontaneity is out of the question.  We've had to learn a  new "normal". It isn't always easy to reconcile the new you with the old you.  We would like the same things as everyone else; acceptance and understanding.

We want and need one thing: a cure.

www.lupus.org *

Comments

[Wendy Ragone]

So well written....from a face of Lupus.

[shalonda.r.garcia@gmail.com]

Wendy thank you!!!

[Brenda Nunley]

I have had lupus for years. I am now taking Benlysta IV infusions.it has help some .I still have good days and bad. living with lupus is very hard and people just don't understand unless they have it are know someone who has it how hard it is to live with it because we don't look sick.