World Changes Impact the Lives of the Lupus Community

Determine your strength to get you through the moments that feel the toughest. Always advocate for yourself, for better or worse, within the hospital.

Access to lupus medications

Roe vs. Wade was overturned, and it's harder for us women than ever before. Abortions are banned in some states, but what does that mean for people with health issues and autoimmune diseases? As everyone knows, methotrexate is a drug prescribed to some people with lupus for arthritis. Doctors tell us that we cannot get pregnant on this medication as well because we will most likely miscarry. I worry the government might take this drug off shelves because it is now considered an abortion drug. Imagine your family member using this drug regularly to treat inflammation, other lupus symptoms, and more, and now they will no longer have access to that drug. The body might have to reset itself even to try a different drug.

This causes inconvenience to people who need the drug for medical reasons. Another drug, not related to Roe vs. Wade but related to the beginning of the pandemic, was the hydroxychloroquine drug used to treat lupus. Hydroxychloroquine became unavailable for some time due to the high demand for treating lupus. So many people have been prescribed the medication, but what happens to the ones who need it? It's like a reaction would happen, I guess, because our bodies become immune to taking these drugs.

When will we be able to speak for ourselves and say this is enough? We should not have to suffer at the expense of politics, treating people as science puppets, and Covid 19. For a while, I was without medication for the last 4 months of my pregnancy and the first 2 months of motherhood. The flare-up that comes after birthing a child can be painful, yet I didn't have the medication to treat it. Steroids also became an issue in the state I lived in because they were using steroids as a booster to help the immune system during the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

Inflation and lupus disability

This latest issue comes at a time when we have to determine what we can do to make a change. Just as inflation rises, it hurts the disabled community due to a set income. No one can live off $800 a month. That does not qualify you for your apartment, and the income-based apartments can be in horrible conditions. Those even require a deposit that the person might not have because they don't make that much. So what is it forever staying with family because of the rise in everything in the United States?

I got a job that requires me to stand for long periods outside in the heat. Everyone knows that people with lupus and heat do not mix very well. So I will have to take steroids every morning, so I won't flare up.

What is the world coming to, and what does that mean for us in the autoimmune disease-disabled community? I feel that for women and overall with health-related issues, we need to take a stand and say we deserve more and better.