Rebecca Z. - Diagnosed Age 32

First let me say, that lupus has no age. You could be any age to get lupus. When I gave birth to my son 46 years ago December 15, 1973, I was so happy. I came home with my son from the hospital, and I couldn't seem to bend to pick him up. I was having pain in my arm but mostly in my lungs, with breathing in air. I thought it was a cold, but it wasn't as the days went on, I became worse with the pain in my chest. I went to my cardiologist who also specializes in Internal Medicine. Excellent diagnostician. I was at his office for several severe lung infections during the first year staying home with my son.

One day my doctor was speaking out loud and he mentioned that I had SLE, but I did not pay much attention to him. He suggested that I take a trip to the Mayo Clinic in MN. Jason was too young for me to leave him for 2 weeks, so I waited until he was a little over two, I took the trip to be examined by the doctors at Mayo. I had every test you could think of. Their answer to me was my doctor diagnosed me correctly with SLE, they told me that they didn't know too much about the disease and I should just go home and make the best of my condition.

The main concentration of the disease was my lungs, pain in the chest as if I was having a heart attack. I couldn't bend down to pick up my son and the pain in my upper body was always there. I was also diagnosed years later of having discoid lupus of my skin. As time went on for me, I developed severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogren's Syndrome, COPD, Acid Reflux, Fatty Liver, and just this year I developed Psoriatic Arthritis.

Every day I suffer from horrible flare-ups. My balance has been severely affected in the last two years. In 2018 I had 9 falls, 2019 I had 7 falls, broke a few bones, but I refuse to give up. For those of you with lupus, hang in there.