Today has been an awesome day. In fact, the last few months overall have been great, but today was awesome- well as long as we are talking about my health. I didn't feel exhausted straight out of bed. My joints don't ache and my muscles don't feel sore. My stomach isn't bothering me and my head doesn't hurt. I actually feel really good. So, I'm taking advantage of that. I decided good days are the optimal motivation to work on my lupus research and awareness. If I feel good today, why can't I feel good tomorrow and the next day, and every day for that matter? Because there is no cure. Why isn't there a cure? Because there isn't enough money to do the extensive research. Actually there isn't even enough money to research and find a new medication to treat lupus. Doctors have been using the same medications for 50 YEARS!!!! It's time for some changes. But why isn't there enough money? Because not enough people know about Lupus. So I'm going to help educate people that want to know. Lupus has affected my life for about 10 years now. I received a positive diagnosis in 2006, just 3 months after my daughter was born. After trying some medications to treat the disease, I decided to opt out. The side effects from the medications were worse than the symptoms of the disease itself. Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects 1.5 million Americans, including me. There are more than 16,000 new people diagnosed with lupus EVERY YEAR!! Unfortunately, it not only affects the lives of the people who have the disease, but the lives of the people around the lupus patients (in my case- my kids, my significant other my family and my friends). Some days, like today, I feel awesome. I have energy and not a single thing hurts. Sometimes, I'm achy or nauseous for no apparent reason, or I feel "blah" for lack of better words. I just have no energy and no motivation to get things done, and I feel like people do right before they figure out they have the flu. Some days I have terrible migraine headaches that keep me tied to the bed in a dark room all day. There are the "days we don't talk about", too. Those are the days when I can't take care of myself much less my family. I'm basically a sick baby in a grown-up body. Someone has to do everything for me. Luckily, it's been a long time since I've had one of those days, but it doesn't mean it can't happen again, and it doesn't mean that time won't be tomorrow or the next day even. Lupus is more unpredictable than my 3-year-old on a sugar high.

An autoimmune disease is a disease where your immune system can't tell the difference between healthy cells and unhealthy cells, so it create auto-antibodies that attack your healthy cells. In other words, since your body can't tell the difference, it attacks and destroys the healthy tissue your body needs to STAY healthy and functioning properly. It is a faulty immune system at best. NO! You cannot catch my lupus. Only my children can possibly get lupus from me. It's genetic, and I inherited it from my mom. Certain things trigger "flares" (where the lupus shows its ugly face), like too much sun, certain types of medications, infections, colds, exhaustion, injuries, emotional stress, and physical stress. The rest of the time is called "remission" (yes, like cancer, kind of). In cancer patients, remission means that the cancer has gone away, even though there is a chance of it coming back at some point. With lupus, the return from remission is definite, but you don't know when until the flare hits you. The treatments for lupus range from steroid treatments to anti-malaria drugs, and even include chemotherapy in the worst cases. The side effects from these drugs and treatments can at times, be more severe than the disease itself. Then the doctors add more medications to treat those side effects, and that cycle continues. Some lupus patients take more than eight different medications multiple times a day (that adds up to putting more than 20 individual pills in their body every single day)! 50 years ago, doctors established these treatments. It's time for something new so lupus patients can lead stronger, healthier, more active lives. Anyone can help, but they have to know about the disease first.

If you are interested in learning more, go to www.lupus.org to get information directly from the Lupus Foundation of America, or follow me on my daily living with Lupus, including things to expect, eating properly, things to avoid. All of these things are beyond the realm of information available and have been discovered through trial and error over my 8 year excursion with my disease and the last 14 years helping my mother cope with her Lupus.