In 2016, I wrote:
As I mentioned on Day 2, Lupus tends to have periods of remission, and periods of flares. Minor flares happen all the time, and moderate and severe flares thankfully happen less often, usually.
Remission doesn’t mean that I feel like I don’t have Lupus– it just means the symptoms are really well controlled. Pain levels are low, I have a lot of spoons, and I can lead an almost normal life.
Minor flares can happen all the time during remission, often caused by things like spending too much time in the sun, or catching a little virus. Usually, I can identify them right away, and they can be fixed with rest or some extra anti-inflammatory drugs.
Moderate flares also happen a couple times a year. They are often set off by an infection, like a virus or a bacteria, or sometimes by stress. Treating the bacterial infection sometimes helps; often, I need to be put on steroids to get a moderate flare under control. That’s one of the reasons why catching a cold can be so dangerous for me. (And a flu? Don’t even get me started…)
Severe flares have, thankfully, been very rare thus far. However, I am currently in the midst of a severe flare. EVERYTHING is bad. Pain levels in joints and muscles are high, I’ve got systems that aren’t working the way they’re supposed to, and I think my hair’s starting to fall out again…
😛 It’s not great. But less than a week until I see the doc! So hopefully we can treat me soon…
Check back again tomorrow, folks!
😉 (Don’t know what I’m talking about, especially spoons? Check my old posts from previous days to catch up.)
Since this pandemic started, it’s been much harder for me to manage my spoons and accommodate my fatigue. All the conveniences I might usually use to save my energy (getting a take away or a food delivery, hiring someone else to do something in the house, etc) have virtually disappeared. This has meant that my days, for the first two months of self-isolation (I’m at 60 days today) have been consumed with either doing everything I have to do, when I have to do it, or doing things to take care of the toll those things take on my body. I had to go on a strong supplemental med for five days last week, to knock out something that looked like a beginning of a flare.
Luckily, the med worked, and a few things in life shifted, including getting access to priority grocery delivery, and going forward I have more conveniences now than I’ve had in the last two months. Today, I’ve been writing my dissertation all day, and boy does it feel good!
Wondering what’s going on with these posts? Check out my explanation HERE!
This Isolation Life 