Day 3, well, sort of

Sorry there has been a slight gap in my blog posts, I've had a rough couple of days. I started my steroids (Prednisone) and they so aren't lying when they say the side-effects are terrible! The most noticeable one is sharp burning pains in my legs. Also, now that I finally have my dosage right (6 a day!), my blood sugars are pretty high. Right now I really want to throw the bottle out the window, but I know they will start working soon and I will start to feel better! Luckily my appetite hasn't increased yet, so i'm not quite a whale haha! That is the one thing that I am not looking foreword to. Hopefully because this is just temporary treatment, I won't gain any more weight. I have gained 20 lbs in a year, and because of this I've been really struggling with well, happiness in general. Every morning is a battle with the mirror, especially when deciding what to wear, and I really just want to lose some weight soon. Thanks again for the prayers and sweet comments everyone!

Day 2: First REAL visit to the doctor

Finally today I went to go see a specialist in Auburn. Her name is Dr. Massey, and I love her! She is from Puerto Rico and has the most amazing accent, and she graduated from Duke so I'm pretty sure she knows what she is doing haha! When we first arrived there we weren't real sure about everything because we waited a good two hours to see her. We think that's because her nurses didn't exactly tell her I was there though because I was a work-in appointment. She walked in the room and asked me why i was there and I told her my symptoms. She then told me to undress and put on this lovely paper gown with an open back. My mom took a picture of it, but i'm not about to post it haha! She then came in and first looked at my extremely swollen and red fingers. She then pushed all of my joints to see if they hurt. A lot of them actually hurt that I didn't realize! My hands (of course), my elbows, my shoulders, my neck, my knees, my feet, and my ankles are all in pain. She informed me that I have fluid on my right knee, which kind of shocked me because it doesn't hurt that bad. The only real scary thing she told me that I didn't already know was that I have fluid around my lungs. I'm honestly not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound good. I know with lupus, people often get fluid build-up around their lungs and heart. After her evaluation she told me to get dressed, and went to go get a light to check and see if my capillaries were dilated in my fingers. Of course they were, and I'm not sure what that really means but apparently it is a lupus thing as well! She decided to start me on some steroids and told me to monitor my blood sugars and if they stay below 250 i can stay on them for two weeks and hopefully that will start to make me feel a little better. The doctor said it will help my fatigue, swelling, pain, and fluid build-up. She then took about 14 tubes of blood (no exaggeration) and I felt pretty sick after that, but I finally got out of there with some answers and some medicine! When walking out I did see something that scared me. There was a living room area with about five women hooked up to IVs. They all looked really frail and sick, but I don't know if it's from lupus or what. I really really really hope that is not what my life is going to end up being.

I just want to thank everyone for the prayers! A few of them have already been answered (seeing a doctor, medicine), but I really need for everyone to continue to pray for not just me, but my friends and family.

Day 1: Summing it up

A lot of people have been curious as to what exactly is going on in my life lately. I went into the doctor a few weeks ago with swollen hands and they ran a few test (arthritis, some other weird things). They called us back in about a week later and we were expecting to hear no answers (as usual), but instead they completely shocked us. Two of the test came back for Lupus. A lot of serious questions were answered with that diagnosis (why i randomly became extremely anemic, why i have sores in my mouth constantly, why i'm always tired, why i've gained 20 lbs in a year), but my mother and I were still devastated, her more than me of course! I'm not exactly the "blog" type, if there even is one?, but I decided I would make this one to keep everyone up to date as often as I can with all that is going on.

Today was obviously pretty bad. I woke up feeling extremely nauseous (thank you Celebrex), but went to first period anyways. That class is pretty much the only important one. During second period my nausea started getting worse, along with severe joint pain, so i just left. I am kind of mad I had to leave because our Spanish IV webquest started today and I really needed to be there to read, but i guess i'll just catch up on it tonight. When I arrived home I tried to eat some crackers because I didn't want my blood sugar to drop, but couldn't, so i slept from about 10:30 to 3:00. I know that probably seems like forever, but i don't think any sleep is enough for me haha!

Getting a rheumatologist (doctor you see for Lupus) has been hard because of insurance problems. We recently switched from Blue Cross of Georgia to Blue Cross of Alabama, so a lot of the doctors I would have been typically recommended to considering my regular physician is in Georgia will not accept my insurance. Luckily, after a ton of controversy, I am finally getting to see a doctor in Auburn. We don't know much about her except that she's, well, a woman haha, but I am just glad i'll finally get some answers, and hopefully some pain medicine! The only bad part about this appointment is that i have to miss our field trip to see Oklahoma, which i don't really care about, but my friend Peyton is mad i won't be there. Oh well, at least a lot of my troubles are finally getting resolved.

Prom is in about three weeks, and I'm not real sure how everything is going to turn out. I have a dress (it's so pretty!), earrings, and shoes, sort of have a date, and have the group i'm going with, but i'm hoping i won't be too sick/tired to go. It's my senior prom, and i would be thoroughly disappointed if i didn't get to go, but my health is much more important. I'm sure i'll be the palest one in the pictures since I'm not supposed to tan, but i might decide to anyways just for a few weeks. I don't honestly think it could make me feel much worse than I do now, and at least i'll be sick AND tan!

I'm about to go read Don Quixote (UGH!) for Spanish and maybe take a long, much needed bubble bath. I will be keeping everyone posted on how I'm feeling and how the doctor's appointment goes of course!