Cabin Trip Lupus Flare Up
So, I went on a trip to the cabin for my mother’s birthday. I noticed many things that my mother and I have in common dealing with our lupus. I thought that ever since my first kidney failure, my mother and I do not experience the same thing, but we do. We drove 4 hours from Atlanta to Pigeon Forge, TN. I was able to see the college I graduated from online. The weather change is one thing that affected us both. It was colder there, and our joints and body aches were very much active. Getting settled in affected our bodies.
Lupus and my family history
One thing that my mother and I have in common is trying to impress everyone and keep them happy. That brings stress trying to impress others which causes the body to flare up by the end of the day. We cleaned the cabin, cooked dinner, and got ready for others to arrive. We started to notice the body pain later that night with our lupus, and we both forgot our medication when we left, so we had to endure the pain we were going through. I watched as our ankles swelled and then our knees and then our hands.
The rash started to appear on both of our faces, but mine was going through my scalp also, which began to cause my pillowcase to start to fill up with my hair. The thing that helped relieve the pain was oil and soothing scalp massages from my husband that lasted about 15 minutes. The next day the flare-up appeared again. It did not help that there was not a mask in sight when we went out. My scalp started peeling dead skin, and I began to bleed a little in my hair. I started to have blood clots coming out of my nose.
Lupus flare complications on the trip
What did not make it any better is upon returning, someone that was at our cabin had Covid>, and everyone had to get tested. My test came back, and I was grateful that it came back negative, and so did everyone else. We were not feeling well when we came back and thought it was maybe due to COVID, but we were all cautious and safe. So, we came home and took steroids, Plaquenil, and a pain reliever to help us get over the flare-up we both were experiencing.
I ended up sending my doctor a message, and she Face-timed me and gave me a steroid shot and extra steroids. I am currently taking about 20 mg of steroids a day. My knees and hand swelling is going down, and my face rash is slowly leaving as well. The lesson I learned is to bundle up and never forget your medicine when going anywhere. Having a daughter and making sure she is situated, I forgot so much stuff. Especially if you’re the last one to leave and everyone that forgot something is asking you to bring it for them. Overall my trip to the cabin was awesome. I just paid the cost of forgetting my medication.
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