The long haul – making peace with lupus

I’m going to be 78 this year. When I was three, I was diagnosed with lupus.

Managing multiple conditions

They knew the name but nothing else about it, and it took many, many, many decades to really know more. By then, I had 16 other autoimmune diseases. I’ve learned how to meditate, pray a lot, do moderate exercise, yell, scream, and cry a lot. All these autoimmune diseases, including lupus, have invaded my body constantly.

The importance of community

What I learned over the years was that I had a choice to lie down and let myself be miserable all the time and unhappy, or try to face everything. The best way I could, and given what I had to do considering the fatigue and misery of lupus. So I learned how to be happy in spite of it, most of the time, not all of the time. It is good that we have these discussions because we have never had this before, and it’s a very big help.