Thank you for the nice welcome. I guess I should share my history as it seems everyone else did. Yes, I guess you can say I've been at this for a little while. I've always been a "sick" person if you will since birth really. I battled upper respiratory infections, bronchitis, and pneumonia on a monthly basis. I was very active throught-out school and after I graduated high school I guess is when things went downhill. I had endometrosis and early stage cervical cancer at 18 almost 19 and then started having heart problems. I have SVT and MVP and have been under meds for that and pretty much under control ever since. Then I got really sick at 21 and after 4 doctors found out I had Scarlett Fever (not common anymore hense the late diagnosis). I think that is when I really started having problems and just didn't get diagnosed until 24. I had started with left arm swelling and turning purple and then really bad chest pains until I was hospitalized. I was seeing a Rheumy but every week I had a different disease and a different test done on my body. I tried to see the other Rhuemy in my city that was really well known but I was put on the waiting list for 4 months. Well, since I ended up in the hospital I got my consult on the 4th day at 10:30 PM. He looked at me and my labs and said, "you have Lupus." How easy it seemed for him to tell me that and how odd the other doctor missed it (strange enough - they use to be partners). I'm 30 now and have been under his care since that visit. I've been through the ringer with meds -- and now I guess to other people's standards -- am pretty sick. I don't let it stop me and I still work my usual 40 hours a week and take care of the house, my boyfriend, and his kids. I have disease pretty much everywhere but the latest is my spinal cord. I have bouts of paralysis but seem to be ok now. I have disease in my frontal lobe (brain), lungs, heart, muscles, joints, skin, spinal cord, eyes, kidneys, female organs, -- pretty much it I think. I can't take plaquenil anymore b/c I have plaquenil toxicity and benign tumors behind my eyes......
I'm currently taking atenolol, verapamil, ovcon (no cycle since 2000), prednisone, neurontin, cytoxan, folbic, diludad, loratab, demerol,(depending on severity of pain), promethazine, singulair, lasix, amitriptyline, baby aspirin, patanol --- I think that's it...
I have SLE, SVT, MVP, Sjogrens, Fibromyalgia, Neuropathy, migraines, Pleurisy, asthma, endometrosis, Reynauds -- think that's it as well....
Sorry if I bored everyone but I figured I should be fair and tell my story since everyone else was kind enough to share theirs......