Lupus Monday.... Gotta love it.

Living With Lupus...never been on a roller coaster quite like this one...

I was diagnosed with Lupus in a funny weird kind of way.... I had just spent 5 wonderful days on vacation with my husband in the middle of July of 2002, in none other than my Beautiful Washington State, showing Marco where I had  lived while in WA state, in the Olympic Mountains area... foothills to be exact.  I so missed it, and was extremely happy to be spending several days around the area that I still to this day so love.

We had spent those few days, visiting friends, hiking in the mountains, visiting the ocean shores, and making some new memories for us to share in the future.  We left WA in the late evening hours, to be home by the next morning.  I was only going to have one hour and forty-five minutes to get Marco home and get to work on time... after landing at the airport.  We picked up our luggage, and we unloaded baggages, and I kissed my Christopher hello, and spent only enough time at home to change into some fresh clothes, and head back out the door for work.  

Upon getting to work and sitting down at my desk, I noticed my shoes were getting too tight, so I changed into some slippers as I often did at work during the day to keep the pressure off of my swelling feet.  As the day progressed I noticed my wedding rings were cutting into my finger, and my slippers  into my feet as well, I started running a slight fever and aching all over, my face had that red coloring to it, everyone said that the WA weather had put the color back into my cheeks, so I thought nothing of it.  That evening as I got ready to go home, I felt horrible, like I had caught some horrific type of flu....I was so exhausted, I don't know how I even made it home, I crashed as soon as I walked through my bedroom doors, and Marco peeled my slippers off of my feet, and my Christopher cuddled up beside me and told me "ooooh Dorraine, you hot"..... my body hurt like it had been run over by a convoy of 18-wheelers.... and left on the side of the road for dead.

The next morning my fevers were spiking, and all the muscles in my body were hurting, and Marco took me to the doctor, I was so swollen I couldn't even put on my pair of soft slippers... so I went to the doctor in a pair of Christopher's flip flops... my regular doctor wasn't in that morning, so the other associate saw me, and she asked me the regular questions about how long these symptoms had been happening, and I told her since Monday evening, and got worse during my day at work, and overnight, she asked me to tell her what had been different about the previous days leading up to the onset of these symptoms, so I told her about our beautiful vacation hiking and enjoying the beautiful outdoors in WA state, and she said..... (are you guys ready for this?)

..."How long have you been diagnosed with Lupus?"  I looked at her crazy like I guess, because she rephrased the question..."When were you diagnosed with Lupus?".... I answered with a question......"Are you telling me I have Lupus?"

That was the day my life changed as we knew it... my life just truly got harder for a long time to come.... I refused to tell my dad anything for he was already having many health issues himself, and I didn't want him to worry about me... so I kept it between Marco and I....

Sometimes I think back to that day, and I am not for sure how I should have felt, but I know I was relieved.... I wasn't just imagining all the bad things that I had been going through, I was stupidly insane, or crazy, I was really sick.... now to deal with it all.... the best way I could, the way I had always dealt with everything..... Putting my full trust in God to get me through it all.... I turned to Jehovah in prayers... to deal with it all with a strength and faith.... <3.  That day was a day that I learned I was a whole lot stronger than I felt.

More details later on in another blog, for today is a Lupus Monday, I forgot to take my injection this morning for my lupus treatment, so I gotta go run and do that now, love to all of you, and I pray for you all daily. <3 

Sorry, but the <3 makes a heart on facebook, don't know why it doesn't everywhere else....

Dorraine