This post on blood pressure is sponsored by Aeroflow in collaboration with Chronic Illness Bloggers. As always, all opinions remain my own and were not influenced by the sponsor. Do you know what your blood pressure is? When was the last time it was measured? The first time that someone told me I had high blood pressure, or hypertension, was about three years ago. I was at my OBGYN’s office getting checked in for my annual exam, and the woman […]
Category: Lupus
Quick Links
Lupus:
My 5 Year Lupus Diagnosis Anniversary.
Diagnosis Number Three: Lupus.
In the Depths of My Sickness with Lupus (and Learning to Put My Health First).
10 Things I Didn’t Realize Would Happen After I Was Diagnosed with Lupus.
Daily Living with Lupus (Guest Post).
A Day in the Life with Lupus.
The ABC’s of Lupus.
How Am I Supposed to Get Better When It Seems Like I’m Always Sick?
Healthcare & Medical Providers:
Signs That You Need a New Rheumatologist.
My 2018 Healthcare Costs with a Chronic Illness in the USA.
When Your Doctor Quits Unexpectedly.
What I’d Like to Say to My Medications.
Please Stop Telling Me to Take an Antidepressant for My Autoimmune Disease.
Lupus and Pregnancy: read all posts.
Lupus and Parenthood:
A Lupus Flare and a Teething Baby.
You can find my (more general) posts about chronic illness here.
Blog roll:
Lupus and Pregnancy in the Third Trimester.
The third trimester of my pregnancy didn’t have nearly as many sweet spots as the second trimester, unfortunately. It turned out to be quite difficult. Of course, lupus and pregnancy mixed together is never going to be easy. I was able to cope fairly well with most of the issues I encountered until the last two weeks – at that point I was just outright miserable. In this post I’ll be sharing about my medical care, lupus symptoms, and pregnancy symptoms. In […]
Signs That You Need a New Rheumatologist.
Choosing a new rheumatologist was relatively easy, but getting a referral, finding an office that would accept my referral, and then actually getting in to see the doctor was quite difficult. I started trying to find a new rheumatologist after only three appointments with the one who diagnosed me with lupus. In fact, I almost walked out of my third appointment with him after waiting 2.5 hours to be seen – the only reason I didn’t walk out is because I […]
The Second Trimester of Being Pregnant with Lupus.
It turned out to be true for me that the second trimester was the sweet spot of pregnancy. A lot of my first trimester symptoms faded or disappeared entirely and I didn’t experience many new or intense pregnancy woes until the second trimester was nearing its end. Being pregnant with lupus meant that it wasn’t completely smooth sailing, of course. I had more doctor’s appointments, medications, and potential complications compared to the average pregnant woman, and I’ll share them all here along […]
The ABC’s of Lupus. (Or, 26 Things About Lupus.)
A few months ago I stumbled across a post called “Fibromyalgia A to Z” and it struck me as a great way to quickly share lots of information about a chronic illness. There are many symptoms and aspects of my illness that don’t necessarily find their way into my blog posts about lupus and this was certainly one of the more creative ways to share 26 of them with you. I hope you learn something new about lupus from this […]
My Lupus Pregnancy: The First Trimester.
I’m so excited to share the news of my lupus pregnancy! I have to admit that I really didn’t expect the word ‘pregnancy’ to enter into my personal vocabulary in 2017. It has been a whirlwind of prenatal education, doctors’ appointments, and brand new experiences over the past few months. In this post, I’m going to share my first trimester lupus pregnancy journey with you partially because it’s a great way for me to document it but also because having lupus […]
A Day in the Life with Lupus.
Have you ever wondered what life with lupus might be like? As one of the 1.5 million people in the U.S. and about five million people worldwide with lupus, I want to share a day in my life with you. In case you aren’t familiar with lupus, I’ll give you a brief introduction. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that makes your body self-destruct. Normal, healthy people have an immune system that works properly and kicks into gear when there is […]
Taking One Day at a Time: Daily Living with Lupus.
This is a guest post by Brittany from NewLifeOutlook. In this post, she is sharing tips on daily living with lupus, which range from dealing with skin rashes to coping with the reactions of others. I hope you find it useful and educational. Living with lupus sometimes requires you to slow down and take one day at a time. There’s no sense in pushing yourself so far that you become fatigued. Yes, there will be some days where you’ll […]
10 Things I Didn’t Realize Would Happen After I Was Diagnosed with Lupus.
Being diagnosed with lupus was a bewildering experience for me. Suddenly, everything made sense – the joint pain, the rashes, the fatigue, the swelling… the endless appearance of new and strange symptoms. Yet, at the same time, nothing seemed to make sense. No one in my family had an autoimmune disease; I’d barely even heard the word lupus spoken before. It’s been eight enlightening months since I was diagnosed with lupus, and I feel like I’m just starting to get […]
In the Depths of My Sickness with Lupus (and Learning to Put My Health First).
I’ve been absent from this blog since my last post in early June, although my posting frequency had been slowing down since the beginning of the year. I didn’t choose this three month blogging hiatus. In fact, I was more or less dragged away – down into the depths of my sickness with lupus. I was too sick to put even the shortest of blog posts together, and for a while I had no idea when I would be well enough […]