Gayla, It was very interesting reading your web site. Lupus seems to be a Cinderella disease in England. There is a British Lupus society, which I have joined, but all my information has come from the internet. My GP seemed to know very little, up to the point of saying that it was not urgent to see the consultant. This was last July and I am still waiting and suffering. I have been told that there is a 26 week wait . The medical opinion over here is not to treat mild lupus, which is what I have been diagnosed as having, but just to keep an eye on the patient regularly. I was diagnosed in July after having many other tests to see what was causing my aching joints and fatigue. It all started the Sunday before last Christmas, when I had terrible pains in my joints. Over Christmas I could hardly move and was in agony whenever I bent down. My next-door neighbour had something similar. She went to her GP who told her it was a virus. I thought it must be the same. My pains continued off and on. In June, after loosing odd days from work because the pain was so bad I could not drive, I visited my GP. Because I work in a secondary school, (then it was two days a week, since September it is three days) he tried to pass it off as stress, trying to make me admit my job was stressful. I just said that it was challenging, which I find it to be. I also had a problem with a previous GP who suggested I was suffering from stress and anxiety when I was in fact pregnant with my first daughter, so I am always wary when the word stress is mentioned! He gave me tests for various illnesses, including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis , which I am sure he thought it was. Someone who works with my husband suffers from Lupus. She talked to me on the phone one day, saying I should ask my GP for a Lupus test. It had taken three years to find out what was wrong with her and she suffered the same symptoms as I have been suffering. I asked my GP for the test. He said that he had no objections to giving me the test, but did not think that it was Lupus. If I had not been told to ask for the test, I would still be trying to find out what was wrong with me! Until then I had not known what Lupus was!
I was diagnosed in July after having many other tests to see what was causing my aching joints and fatigue. It all started the Sunday before last Christmas, when I had terrible pains in my joints. Over Christmas I could hardly move and was in agony whenever I bent down. My next-door neighbour had something similar. She went to her GP who told her it was a virus. I thought it must be the same. My pains continued off and on. In June, after loosing odd days from work because the pain was so bad I could not drive, I visited my GP. Because I work in a secondary school, (then it was two days a week, since September it is three days) he tried to pass it off as stress, trying to make me admit my job was stressful. I just said that it was challenging, which I find it to be. I also had a problem with a previous GP who suggested I was suffering from stress and anxiety when I was in fact pregnant with my first daughter, so I am always wary when the word stress is mentioned!
He gave me tests for various illnesses, including diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis , which I am sure he thought it was. Someone who works with my husband suffers from Lupus. She talked to me on the phone one day, saying I should ask my GP for a Lupus test. It had taken three years to find out what was wrong with her and she suffered the same symptoms as I have been suffering. I asked my GP for the test. He said that he had no objections to giving me the test, but did not think that it was Lupus. If I had not been told to ask for the test, I would still be trying to find out what was wrong with me! Until then I had not known what Lupus was!
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