Lupus Adventures Galore

I was diagnosed with lupus last month and knowing why I feel like crap all the time doesn’t make it suck any less. I wanted to start a blog that is positive yet honest and to accurately capture this journey I am on with all the ups and downs of navigating the mysteries of this incurable illness.

I am currently having a miserable and painfully long night. Due to increased risk of stroke in lupus patients, it turns out that my previous method of birth control, which was the Nuvaring, could have in fact killed me. Yay for that. I was using it for 13 years, but I had to make that call. My poor husband hasn’t gotten any since lol.

So after some research and social networking with other lovely lupus ladies, I decided on the IUD, which is a non-hormonal copper implant that lasts 12 years. This is why I am awake at 4:30am on a Wednesday morning with a TENS unit pulsing on my lower abdomen (I love that word btw, abdomen lol.) In case you were wondering, to have an IUD put in, they first crank your vagina open, then crank your cervix open and then install their T-shaped copper hardware into your uterus. It feels awesome, but is over relatively quickly.

Well, the installation part is over quickly at least. I currently feel like I have the worst period of my life sprinkled with the flu. This can last for a couple of days. Marinate that in my usual glaze of lupus symptoms fatigue, joint pain, muscle pain and weakness, headache and brain fog and no sleep and you’ve got a winning recipe for the most productive customer service representative this side of the Mississippi. Needless to say I cannot sleep. No-siree-bob! See! I’m already getting really weird without it.

So I got up and engaged in the three T’s

• Tea
• Toast
• TENS unit

Of course now that’s it’s almost time to get up, I feel like I might be able to close my eyes and sleep, but alas I have already missed too much work. I have work at 8am. My alarm will go off in less than an hour. I am not a happy camper. However, I know I will get through this day. I know it will not kill me (unless the IUD perforated my uterus and punctures one of my internal organs lol, but that’s neither here nor there people, focus!) It’s only supposed to last a couple days and then I can skip along my merry way.

I mentioned being positive at one point so here it comes. I am grateful. Even at 5:26am, I AM GRATEFUL. It is what keeps me going. I have a loving and supportive husband, a great house, a great job, a great support group of family and friends. Oh and then there’s the kitties. I am grateful to be finding answers and solutions to the mysterious ailments that have plagued me these many years. I will be okay. Although the lupus will not pass, this tough time will. And I’ve got Google and my higher power to walk me through it.