I am currently worried on the state of my hair right now. Few months back I cut it short. I thought that would fixed the falling hair problem. But I thought wrong. Now, the hair fall is even worst. Every time I combed my hair, a lot of strands fall. Even when I take a bath or when I sleep. I fear that I might go bald. Actually there are already spots on my head that is clear of hair. Uhoh.
Do you want to know if you have LUPUS. Then you might want to answer the Yes or No questions in the lupus.org website. I copied the 15 questions and put in some of my experiences about the symptoms.
1. Achy, painful and/or swollen joints for more than three months
Before my diagnosis I have experience this and for more that two years. Arcoxia help me fight the pain.
2. Fingers and/or toes become red or blue, or feel numb or painful
During one of my lupus flare in 2004.
I found this chart in the lupus.org website. The said chart has a human body with dots on it. Every dots represents the organ in the body that can be affected by LUPUS. If you put your cursor on the dot it will explain what LUPUS can do to your body.
To learn more of the Impact of LUPUS in your body visit this site –> http://www.lupus.org/newsite/pages/body_tool.aspx
For the record I am posting my xray results here. Actually all my blood works shows that my LUPUS is inactive. Even the creatinine and the C3.
Here’s the result :
CHEST
Examination shows suspicious opacities in the left upper lung.
Heart is moderately enlarged with left ventricular prominence.
Other optimally visualized chest structures are unremarkable.
IMPRESSION :
Suspicious opacities, left upper lung.
Suggest apicolordtic view.
Moderate left ventricular cardiomegaly.
The cold weather is not doing any good to me. Except for the fact that it reduces our electric consumption but in totality its creating havoc to my body. Of course there is the severe coughing incident with pleurisy involved but right now I am developing what is commonly called the Raynaud’s disease.
I have been reading a lot of Raynauds in the past since there was an incident in 2004 that I thought I had it already. In 2004, I was on the hospital when my doctor discovered a bluish bruise in my foot. But he told me it due to my coumadin intake.
We all know that holiday always equates to additional pounds in our body. But did you know that over the holidays I loss 6lbs? Ironic, isn’t it? And instead of rejoicing I am bit worried. Why? One of the many symptoms of having lupus is weight loss. Though my rheuma is not that yet alarmed so I think I am still on a safer state. But I can’t shrugged it off. I know I have loss my appetite when I was coughing severely. The husband kept on noticing how I eat. And he too was worried.
I should have blogged about the results of my laboratory test but unfortunately I am not feeling well this past couple of days. The results are okay, not A okay but it is better than what I expected. I thought I would go down the drain when it comes to the CBC but no, all my results are withing normal range as well as the numbers for my creatinine.
The urinalysis was a different story. I have traces of albumin and numbers for the pus cells. I know this woud get the attention of my rheuma plus the number for my PT INR is 4. Gosh! I can have bleeding anytime with that number.
From the time I was diagnosed with LUPUS, which took me ten days in the hospital, one blood transfusion, countless blood extraction, various exam ranging from xray, 2D echo, others which i can longer remember, many IVs to the point of making my two hands swollen and a bill that reach 100k pesos until the time I reached home I was on a floating state.
I remember being discharged on the hospital not being able to walk normally. While I was on the car on the way home, I felt some discomfort that I throw up. My boyfriend, who is now my husband was really worried. When we reach home nothing changes. My fever went up and down, the joint pains become unbearable.
There are eleven criteria used to diagnose LUPUS. If you have seven out of the eleven, more often than not you have it.
Here are the eleven criteria as enumerated by MEDICINENET :
The truth is, when the doctors told me that I had LUPUS, I only gave them a blank stare. Contrary to the reaction of a friend of mine who really cried her hearts out when she have known what plagues me. Later she told me that it was this disease that ended the life of her mom. So my reaction was, would I also die ?
Unfortunately, the first hospital where I was confined was clueless on how to treat my LUPUS. Yes, they were able to diagnosed my illness but it was because of an obvious symptom — the malar or butterfly rash. The doctors at that hospital can never explain to me what LUPUS really is.
