About SLE and it's symptoms/treatments:

What affect does it have?

Lupus may affect the skin, joints, kidneys, liver, central nervous system, heart....basically any and every part of your being, it can even develop into leukemia in some instances, thus affecting bone marrow.

Common symptoms:

Symptoms vary widely from person to person, not all suffer the same. Virtually all patients suffer joint pain. Many suffer from butterfly rash, extreme fatigue, muscle aches, nausea & vomiting, seizures, skin rash, arthritis, psychosis, sensitivity to sunlight and pleurisy, or pleural effusions.

Additional associated symptoms:

Abdominal pain, blood disorders (including abnormal clotting), hair loss, nosebleeds, numbness and tingling in the extremeties, patchy skin color, difficulty swallowing, blood in urine and visual disruptions (loss of focus).

Treatment:

There is no cure or direct treatment for this disease. At best, physicians try to control symptoms using anti-inflammatories, hydroxychloroquinine (plaquenil) and varied doses of corticosteroids. When an organ system is involved (kidney failure or "malfunction" is very typical and a leading cause of death), certain anti-regection medications show promise in containing the disease. Typically, cytoxan, imuran or methotrexate is employed (chemotherapy). The treatments typically have side effects that require additional medication or cause further health problems - life with lupus is very painful for many.

SLE is essentially a disease that occurs when the body turns on itself, attacking normal, healthy tissue and cells rather than diseased or infected ones, like it's supposed to. A diagnosis cannot be done with one simple test, but, is made only after a patient presents at least four of the eleven typical characteristics. Tests used to diagnose this disease are: Antinuclear antibody panel, Anti-double strand (ds) DNA, Anti-phospholipid antibodies and Anti-smith antibodies. Clear as mud on those tests?

Survival odds are better, the ten year survival rate is now greater than 85% (yes, what we're saying is, most patients will not survive a normal life span and it's an excruciating death, in many cases). But, the odds are improving....that's a plus.

Helpful links:

The Johns-Hopkins Arthritis Center

Lupus Foundation of America

Blogging Lupus:

Molly's Fund

Lupus Girl

Fighting Fatigue (this is a great source with a lot of links imbedded)

LupusRants: Thirty Things You May Not Know (excellent)

Think you may have lupus (because no one knows what's wrong with you and you feel like hell, so you may just be crazy)? Schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist for further discussion of your symptoms and a few (dozen) simple blood tests.