Christine's Story

My name is Christine and I am 36 years old. I am a wife, a mother of 2 boys, a full time daycare provider and a full time Lupus sufferer.

I have been learning about my Lupus & symptoms since I was about 13. When I was 14 I had major knee surgery which caused a DVT which led to lung problems and seizures, which opened the door for my Lupus to show it’s many faces.

At 16, I made the decision to drop out of school due to not being well enough to attend and with the seizures not being controlled; I wasn’t comfortable being in public. I spent the next 4+ agonizing years trying to deal with fainting spells, seizures, memory loss, headaches, unexplained aches & pains, fatigue, and severe depression. The worst was trying to ‘convince’ the so called specialists that there was something wrong with me. I went through Doctor after Doctor .. tests after tests … hospital stay after hospital stay .. additional symptoms after symptoms … still no concrete answers.

I seriously felt like I was actually loosing my mind and that no-one understood or cared to understand what I was going through. I felt alone, crazy and I truly second guessed myself … I really started to believe what all the Doctors were telling me – “it is all in your head and you are not sick”. Thank goodness there was a tiny little voice in my head that kept me grounded and kept me strong enough to continue on with my fight to find out what was wrong.

It took quite some time to get my seizures under control (I was taking the maximum seizure medication you could take – Dilantin & Epival) but once they were controlled I was able to finish high school (through correspondence), continue on & graduate from College and finally get out in public again and get a job.

Then the real issues started.

I had my first TIA at 21 (1st of 6 TIA’s). That started the high doses of coumadin and the endless visits to the hospital to get blood taken 5 times a week for 2+ years after which dropped down to 3 times a week.

After years of tests & more tests, continual medication changes, a few things were discovered:

1) I have an absorption issue with all medications.
2) I was diagnosed with Antiphospolipid Antibodies with Lupoid tendencies.
3) I was getting worse NOT better … more & more symptoms from the Lupus confirmation list were starting to show & become relevant to my health issues.

I was finally diagnosed with SLE, fibromyalgia, arthritis, sensitivity to pleurisy & pericarditis, chronic migraines, knee replacement candidate at the age of 25, Raynaud’s disease, lymph node enlargements, chronic fatigue, sun sensitivity, extreme sensitivity to repeated sprains, nerve damage, severe mouth sores, memory problems & trouble thinking, TIA’s, strokes, depression and many, many, many other ailments & symptoms.

Currently I am on 4 aspirin daily, Toradol when needed, Oracort when needed and when I have a flare I will go on a round of anti-inflammatory medication or other related medications to treat the flare/symptom.

I deal with the ups & downs of Lupus on a daily basis … some days are good, some days are just ok (tolerable) and there are some days where I am just unable to function at all .. either due to the pain, the fatigue, headaches or just the everyday problems related to Lupus.