Friday, December 07, 2007

Forgot to mention - I have lupus SLE

Oh. I guess by now you are wondering what could be wrong with me and my kidneys? I haven't mentioned that yet. Or have i?

I have Systemic Lupus Ereythemotosus...it is an autoimmune disease where my body attacks itself. In my case it is my kidneys. I also have a blood disorder, antiphospholipid syndrome.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupus_erythematosus and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiphospholipid_syndrome for more information.

I have been diagnosed with this condition since 1996 but have probably had it longer than that. It results in weird symptoms. I have had a minor stroke from the blood condition and a retinal occlusion. I have been in hospital over 14 times. It seems we just can't get the lupus to stop attacking so now it has nearly destroyed my kidney function.

I am down to less than 10% now hence the preparation for dialysis. Eventually I will have a transplant, we are unsure if the new kidney will also be attacked by lupus. At the moment there is no cure for Lupus but people are working on it.

1 comment:

  1. Good morning ... My name is Wick Davis and I'm with the Lupus Foundation of America. I came across your blog and wanted to reach out to you. I'm currently trying to find all the bloggers out there who have lupus. I am hoping that we might be able to assist one another. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me at davis@lupus.org. I hope to hear from you. Wick

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