At one point when I was growing up, church was a fact of life. I learned that people tend to look to spiritual things more when life becomes difficult, or as I like to say, when we are tried in the fire. For most of my life, however, I…
When someone expresses their sympathy about my life with lupus, a typical response just rolls off my tongue. “It could be worse.” It’s true. Life with lupus could be many magnitudes worse than it is for me right now. Crippling arthritis, unbearable chronic pain, migraines, brain fog, and recurring mental…
People who have dealt with lupus for any length of time know that it is an autoimmune disease. This means that your immune system can’t tell the difference between good and bad cells, so it attacks everything in sight. It leaves you with an overworked immune system, which…
I was a workaholic; I don’t have a hard time admitting that. Part of me was proud of my work ethic — after all, I was dubbed “Hurricane” because I worked circles around everyone else. Now I have lupus, and fatigue is a big part of battling this…
When you have lupus, every single day brings on more stress. There are endless doctor visits and blood tests. You have to deal with brain fog. You have to remember to take your medicine at the right time. Plus, everyday tasks like getting out of bed and taking…
Living abroad was something I always wanted to do. When you move abroad, it seems people are a bit fascinated with you, and when you move abroad with health challenges, that heightens the fascination. Getting lupus made me witness firsthand what healthcare was like in the United States, and I…
I think that every time I’ve shared an article lately, I’ve talked about symptoms of lupus related to mental health. While I don’t particularly care for the pain, the fatigue, or the physical afflictions of lupus, the things that have caught my attention lately are more psychological. Several months ago,…
Half the time, when I tell someone that I have lupus, I’m not sure that they believe me. And when I say that I work 40 to 50 hours a week and study part-time, I can understand how my health status sounds even less credible. But living with lupus is…
Readers who are familiar with William Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” will know that belladonna is a poison. So what does that have to do with potatoes? Everything — and nothing. Both white potatoes and belladonna are from the Solanaceae family, commonly known as nightshades. Red potatoes are also in…
Many of us are frequently told, “You don’t look sick.” We can find that comment a little off-putting. While we recognize that it’s someone’s way of saying that we look “good” or “well,” that’s not how we feel about it. Not looking sick allows us to remain camouflaged among…