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This personal story of recovering after lupus treatment is a must read for women, given that women are disproportionately impacted by this auto-immune disease.
What would you do to save your life if your immune system starts attacking you? Well, having gone through Lupus, such a health condition, I may be helpful for other women out there.
It all started in September 2018, when I lost my baby unexpectedly in the seventh month of my pregnancy. Everything was ok until then when suddenly, during my last trimester scan, my doctor said that the blood supply to the baby was inadequate; so she put me on blood thinners but within a week I lost my baby.
It was a very tough time for me for me and my family as we were really looking forward to have a child after 5 years of treatments and waiting.
I forced myself hard to accept my fate and move on with life, with my ever supportive husband. During those days when I was trying to recover after delivering my already deceased child through a normal delivery, I started getting fever more frequently, and swelling which is a symptom of pregnancy started getting worse rather than healing.
The days passed as everyone said that these were common post pregnancy symptoms. But with time, my limbs were getting more swollen day by day, and fever would go with medicine, only to come back.
My joints started aching severely and it was almost impossible for me to stand or even sit without support. My doctor didn’t take it seriously and prescribed some medicines saying that these post pregnancy symptoms would go with time and that I was suffering more because I had seven month intra uterine death (IUD) of my fetus, so I believed her and waited.
Exactly two weeks later I was admitted to a leading hospital in emergency with acute difficulty in breathing and with an inability to hold my urine, besides that joint pain and fever intact.
After long and intense interrogation about my problems and several tests and scans for about four days, the doctors declared I was having this rare disease called lupus which had flared up during my pregnancy; since the symptoms were initially light and common symptoms of pregnancy, it had gone undiagnosed and now brought me to such a fatal position.
Now you might be wondering why I call it fatal so let me tell you here my reports revealed:
As almost all the organs of my body were affected, I thought, Oh god is there anything left! The doctor told me, “Yes, luckily your heart and brain remain unaffected as you could make it here on time. Once the brain gets attacked, things would have gone out of our hands”.
I was scared but was not even in a position to express my fears so I let myself be in the hands of the doctors. They kept me under observation for 20 days; meanwhile I was given steroids and blood to fight and survive the condition.
I didn’t start feeling well in the first week of medication. Steroids reduced my body weight drastically and I started looking like a woman of 50 years at the age of 32.
After this period, they shifted me to a general ward from the special unit called HDU, where I started recovering slowly but still felt utterly weak. As I couldn’t even lift my hand on my own I faced difficulty using the washroom and was depressed that I had to depend on ward attendants and my husband for my personal chores – even though my husband was fully supportive and was there for me all the time by my side. Still, who likes feeling helpless?
After two more weeks I was discharged in a stable condition with strict instructions and medical prescriptions from my doctor.
Now I have completed one year of living without facing any health issues with the help of medicines and regular scans which I have to discuss with my doctor. Every 3 months I go for an OPD visit which he has assured me will be reduced in the near future as I am doing well according to my reports.
So ladies, this was the sum of my encounter with lupus and now I feel obliged to tell you its features.
Common symptoms of lupus
Organs affected by lupus
Causes of lupus
There are no clear and direct causes of lupus but reports say that it can be hereditary or due to environmental causes such as certain medications or infections.
Precautions
So there is nothing to freak out – you can fight the lupus and defeat it to live your life normally and healthy. Older reports used to suggest that a lupus patient can live only six years after diagnosis but now it is reported that 80 to 90 percent people survive it and live their lives normally with the help of proper treatment.
Women are affected disproportionately by lupus – statistics reveal that 7 out of 10 affected are women. While there is currently no cure, the symptoms of lupus can definitely be controlled with proper diagnosis and treatment, not to mention the awareness.
Wish you all good health, ladies!
Image via Pixabay
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Dr Nalini Parthasarathi, 79, based in Puducherry has dedicated 30 years of her life caring for people suffering from hemophilia.
It is amazing when a person turns personal adversity into a calling, and extends empathy to make a significant impact in the lives of other people. This has been the life’s journey of Dr Nalini Parthasarathi.
April 17 is World Hemophilia Day. Dr Nalini Parthasarathi, 79, based in Puducherry has dedicated 30 years of her life caring for people suffering from hemophilia. She was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2023.
Hemophilia is a condition where one or more clotting factor is absent leading to bleeding. Severe cases can be life-threatening.
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