How To Diagnose Lupus?

It is said that Lupus is hard to diagnose considering that its symptoms are similar to individual illness such as allergy, nephritis, arthritis, diabetes and other diseases. Experts also said that the symptoms vary from one patient to the other. And symptoms that would manifest are depending on the organs affected by the disease.

I want to thank all the members of the HDPSEA
(Hinunangan District Public Schools Employees Association) for the aid
that I received. And special thanks to Ma'am Pat and Ma'am Magna.
God bless HDPSEA.

In my case, I am anemic (low hemoglobin level) for a long time. I am always allergic to anything, like when a mosquito bit me, the inflamed area as a reaction to the mosquito bite would have a diameter of more than two inches. I always had an inflamed ankles, which was diagnosed as arthritis.  I also lost a lot of hairs, including my eyebrows and pubic hairs. I also had rosy cheeks that some of you thought I was using beauty products. And then there would be times that I had edema on my face.

By simply considering these symptoms, nobody would think that my real illness is Lupus, especially that they did not come simultaneously.

Diagnosis Came Right

I can say that I am still fortunate that the diagnosis finally came right before my kidneys became useless. But it would be better if the diagnosis came early before it started to harm my kidneys.

Should I give the credits to my Nephrologist who upgraded the diagnosis to "Nephritis - SLE" from Nephrotic Syndrome? Or should I give the credit to my former Internal Medicine Doctor who upgraded the diagnosis from Nephritis to Nephrotic Syndrome?

Well, I think, the credit and praises should be given to the Almighty Father, the one and only true God. It's Him (God) who gave wisdom to the doctor in our local hospital who gave the diagnosis of "Nephritis," which she based it on the laboratory result telling us that my urine sample had plenty of bacteria. After administering a treatment procedure that she knew in treating a patient with Nephritis, she realized that the problem was still there even if after the treatment my urine samples were already cleared of bacteria. So, she ordered me to undergo ultrasound test of my kidneys.

Bringing with me the result of the ultrasound and other laboratory tests, I went to see an Internal Medicine doctor who told me that my illness was an autoimmune one, which he called it as "Nephrotic Syndrome. He even assured me that the diagnosis was 80 percent true and only the biopsy that would be made from my kidney tissue samples could tell and verify the diagnosis. However, every time I went to see him, he always asked me if I had rashes.(Maybe, he was suspecting that SLE was my real illness.)

The treatment procedure that was administered to me against "Nephrotic Syndrome" is a bit successful. In three months of taking corticosteriod which is known for its anti-inflammatory and immune-suppressant properties, my kidneys returned to normal... in size, and in functions. So, the doctor decided to taper my intake of steroid. After that, the doctor said that I was already okay.

But three months after I stopped taking steroid, the illness attacked me again. I was brought by my husband to a Nephrologist  bringing along with us the previous results on laboratory tests and ultrasound, just in case the Nephro-Doctor would be interested on my health history. By considering the diagnosis of my former Internal Medicine Doctor, the Nephrologist told us to undergo laboratory tests of my urine and blood. I was also brought to the x-ray lab, and then I also had the ultrasound test of my organs and also underwent the ECG.

When the doctor got hold of the results, she told me that I had Lupus.

But that news doesn't surprise us.  My husband had done his research already about Nephrotic Syndrome and SLE (Lupus).  They are both autoimmune diseases and the treatment is similar. The only difference between them is that the affected organs in the Nephrotic Syndrome diagnosis are the two kidneys, while in Lupus all the organs can be affected .... from Kidneys, to lungs, pancreas, heart, brain, blood, skin tissues, and other organs and tissues.

So, finally, the diagnosis came right. We also had an aggressive but intelligent doctor. But the problem was, we didn't  have ideas where to get the financing of the treatment.