Autoimmune

 Hi Everyone!

Before I get started I want to say I am not a doctor. I had nurses studies in high school and college and much later in life became a Vet Tech. What I write here is from years of studying to learn more about the dis-eases I live with.

 

The basics of Autoimmune,(AI)

AI disease happens when the body’s natural defense system can’t tell the difference between your own cells and foreign cells, causing the body to mistakenly attack normal cells. 

There are more than 100 types of AI diseases that affect a wide range of body parts. I have done extensive research on AI and I will not go into the science of it all because, "they" still don't have all the answers for any AI. However, AI runs in families, and strikes women more than men. 80% of those with AI tend to be girls and women. I believe that genes and hormones  are, in part, responsible for AI unless one contracts AI through pregnancy, environment, or from medications. It is proven that once these things change the AI effects disappear. I do know that in the 1940s AI was being looked at and in the 1950s Paul Ehrlich coined the term “horror autotoxicus” to emphasize the pathogenesis of autoimmunity and how the immune system distinguishes “foreign” from “self.

The medical field does move slowly and many doctors didn't believe in certain AI until the 1990s and even then the belief was that women were faking it for attention, pre or menopausal and it didn't count, or we were just crazy and needed to be sedated or place in a sanitarium. I was accused of all of the above. But I am getting ahead of myself.

For me lupus started as a baby. I would cry and grab at my head. The doctor then said I was having headaches. Remember, that doctors in the early 1950s did everything from casting a broken bone to delivering the babies. Doctor Bosco was our doctor.  By the age of 4 or 5 I was having full on migraines and they have lasted until today. School was very difficult for me. I was also dyslexic. Again during the 1950s and 60s teachers were brutal on kids with this disorder. I was no exception. Sunlight was and is my enemy and I would often pass out in school if the bright sun hit my eyes just right. No one could tell my mom what was wrong with me. I was given all kinds of meds to stop the migraines but nothing really worked. All through my life I have had major internal organ problems. The doctors just removed them and called it a day. No one ever tried to find out why. Coping and taking care of one symptom at a time is what most of us get. Sometime in my 40s I woke up and my left eye was drooping. This is called ptosis. It was so strange because I felt fine.  I had my eye looked at for palsy and stroke. Nope, not those. Three weeks later it all hit me. I had a women doctor that did my first lupus blood work and found I was positive for it. From there the hell started. I was sent to a rheumatologist and put on 3 different medications including an antidepressant and prednisone. The side effects were worse than the lupus. For the next 2 years, due to medications, I lost the ability to speak, walk, had seizures everyday, was in a state of hallucinations, oh, and lost all of my hair. I was told I didn't have lupus but was epileptic. At that time 2 masses were found on my brain. Neurologist added more meds. I fought them, told them the meds are making me sick, that I can't be taken off one medication and given a new one in a course of a day. I had every test known to woman kind, with some interesting findings but I was still considered crazy. By this time I didn't know myself and had to be cared for like a 90 year old. I truly thought I was dying. In a moment of clarity. I signed, property, our home, and everything else over to Mr. M.  Also at that time I sent him to the herb store with a list of cleansing herbs. These @#$#$%$%^ doctors were not going to kill me with their meds. Slowly Mr. M. started to take me off of the meds and fed me herbal teas. Some of the meds were quick to leave my system some took longer, about a year. But once I had my senses back I stormed into doctors offices without appts and read each one them a riot act and fired them. That's when I started research on lupus and how to control it with herbs, vitamins and minerals.

This post has taken a different path than I thought it would and is quite long. I am going to stop here and finish it tomorrow. 

If you have read all of this, I thank you.

Even though horrible details have been left out I hope you get the idea of what a lot of women and men go through to be diagnosed. It usually takes 5 years.

See you tomorrow

Nicole