Finding Ways to Control Lupus Symptoms

This is a very intense topic to talk about. I have a lot of followers on Instagram that always ask about symptom control or the lack thereof. Their first thought is how can they get their lupus under control?

I am not a medical professional right now, just a medical student, so I will not be giving out any advice whatsoever on what you should or should not do when it comes to what the doctors have already had you established on. I can only speak about how I learned to control my symptoms.

Speak to your doctor about lupus symptoms

The first step that I would always take is to consult my doctor. The first one would be my rheumatologist, and if I can not get in contact with her, it will usually be my primary doctor. The primary doctor can only do so much, but head to the emergency room if you are in an intense flare-up.

Anything can trigger an "off" day

So many things I tried to change to have better symptom control, and the truth is that you will always have those types of days. Even when you think you have been having a great week, things can happen. I recently started my menstrual cycle, and a facial rash appeared on my face. I wondered why. This was different for me, and all I could do was take my medication. There were moments when I felt fatigued and still would wake up with a rash on my lips, hands, and facial areas, so I tended to stay in bed during the duration of my cycle.

Meditation and nature help me

There have sometimes been situations that would feel overwhelming, and I would become very stressed out and catch a severe flare-up. I had to learn you cannot force people to be who you want them to be or force them to want to do better. Sometimes you have to focus on yourself to make sure you don’t flare up over stressful moments. I learned to pick anytime out of the day and read for an hour. Make sure it’s a positively motivated book and it helps you take steps toward the goals you are trying to achieve. This helped me meditate. I started to go to the mountains around the areas near and walk through them with my husband. I always try to remain active to improve my joint and muscle pain when I normally have them.

Lupus diet changes

The next thing that I have tried is a healthy diet. My doctor recommended that I eat 2000 calories a day, and sometimes that is not even possible for me because depending on my mood, I will not eat some days being a parent you forget to eat food because you are worried about your child most of the time. So I make sure I drink a protein shake sometimes to get the needed nutrition within my body, but my doctor reminded me that I should not starve myself but I should fast for certain hours of the day.

Lupus is unpredictable

I rest when my daughter is asleep, and I sleep as much as I can at night after focusing on my classwork. Still doing all of these things I still find myself having flare-ups on the regular and I realized lupus just tries to attack everything that it can and I just need to find a way to live with it and know my limits. Lupus is an unpredictable disease to deal with and I just learned to remain positive so I can have better days than bad ones.

How do you manage lupus symptoms?