Lupus has a way of masking itself as other ailments. In the past, I’ve had to go to opthamologists because I briefly lost sight in my eyes. They said it was swelling, gave me some medicine and told me to come back in a few days. When I lost hearing in both my ears, the audiologist said it was swelling in my ears, gave me some medicine and told me to come back in a few days. Once, my heart felt as if it was going to explode. It felt like it was too big for my chest (only way to define the pain). The emergency room physician said the tests determined that my heart was fine, the EKG didn’t show anything but gave me some Dilaudid and sent me home. It was if I’d made it up in my head, but I didn’t. So, now I just don’t go to the doctor whenever something happens. I figure it’s probably Lupus.
A couple of days ago, I started to get some swelling in my left foot. I took a couple of Extra Strength Tylenol. I figured it would just go away. It didn’t. As a matter of fact, the pain began to travel up my left side and rested in my lower pelvic area. That’s when the pain sat me down. Yesterday, I woke up and the pain was in the left side of my chest, near my heart (again). I never assume it’s a heart attack anymore, but always assume it’s Lupus.
I get tired of doctors watching me having total body spasms or pains that are out of reach inside my body and them saying that they don’t understand why it’s happening and would rather just give me prescriptions for pain, and inflammation and also muscle relaxers just to get me out of their faces. I get it. This is why I don’t go whenever I feel bad. I just take my medicines and rest. There’s really nothing else they can do. There’s no cure.
The only drawback to taking those meds is that they are so strong, I am unable to take care of myself or anyone else. I can’t do any work because it’s hard to string two thoughts together. I don’t like the high. I don’t get how people want to feel like that. It feels like an out of body experience – like things are happening around you and you can’t do anything about it.
Well, I’m writing this blog as I am coming out of the high from this last round of drugs. Some of the pain is still there, but I can function better now. I’m still a little dizzy, able to write, but not much else. I won’t push it.
Lupus sucks. Please pray for a cure.
So, today I will reopen my Etsy shop after an 8-month hiatus. I realized that I needed to dedicate myself to my studies for these past two semesters in order to succeed…and I did!! While I didn’t get an ‘A’ in either class, my success was in passing both with a B. Those were the most challenging classes I’ve had in my education thus far. Mid semester, I thought about quitting because nothing made sense and I had received my first failing grade on an exam. I reached out to my professor and she talked me out of it. She reminded me that I was able to throw out one exam. She went further and explained that the exam was difficult for the majority of the class and then gave me some pointers on how to succeed. After tweaking my methods of studying, I was able to focus and pass my next two exams with a B.
lavender fields creations 