What Comes After Lupus

My story starts just prior to 1995. I'll try not to be long-winded while still give you a good overview. I was always fit and slim at 105 pounds, even at thirty, and looked years younger than my true age. It was mostly due to great genes, but also I loved to dance and had an abundance of energy. I modeled, sang at karaoke, acted – anything that put me on a stage. You could say that I was an extrovert after the initial ice-breaking. Life was going well. I was going to move to the big city to try my hand at modeling there. Then in early 1995, I got sick with Lupus, an auto-immune disease. After seven months, I was finally diagnosed; then came the pills. The weight from the Prednisone increased quickly, so quickly in fact, that my skin ripped in areas leaving stretch marks all over my body.

I looked and felt like a different person. One night, I went out with a friend to the karaoke club, our hangout. No one recognized me. I was so embarrassed that I used a different name when being introduced. Even at my brother's wedding, the family didn't initially recognize me except that I was standing beside my son. I rarely went out and for a year, refused to have my picture taken except for the wedding. The treatment continued, and over the next several years, I got used to my condition and the extra 55 pounds (a lot when I started at only 105), but I always felt like I was not in my own body. The medication made me lethargic at first and I had no energy to exercise the weight off. Eventually, the lethargy went away, but unfortunately, so did my will to exercise.

Fast forward to 2009. My tests showed that there were no more signs of the Lupus. Actually so minute, that there was no concern. I had never heard of that happening. Yeh, no more medication. But soon I was having trouble walking long distances. I thought it was from the excess weight I was carrying, but it wasn't until a few years later that I found out that the Prednisone had deteriorated my hip sockets. Yes, Prednisone was better than dying with untreated Lupus, but it did have its side effects. In Fall of 2012, I had a hip replacement. It was a long, slow healing process, but there was progression. By the summer of 2014, I was walking freely, skipping, attempting to run, dancing (my favourite form of exercise) – I was moving! I changed my diet and was starting to lose weight. I was feeling like my old self again, but then I was hit with yet another set back. I have developed an infection that can be dealt with through surgery and laser treatments. Unfortunately, these are not covered through Medicare.

I hope you can help me get my life back on track with a donation towards the costs. I would like to finally kick the Lupus in the butt and say, "In the end, you didn't take control of me!"

Thank you for dropping by. Any help will be very much appreciated.

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