Life with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

All of us suffer with minor aches and pains from time to time that have no explanation. For six months, I was suffering with morning stiffness and extreme fatigue. I wasn't sleeping well and I thought it was time to change my mattress. I had a few nights of comfortable sleep but then discovered that my pain only worsened. "Could excercise be the answer?" I thought to myself.

I started a daily regime of exercise to help with the pain and the stiffness and to loosen my muscles. This made my pain even worse and 15 minutes into my exercise, I felt an extreme fatigue over my body. My next thought was to drink more water and eat a little healthier.

I tried a raw vegetable lunch diet and cut out fatty substances. I lost weight at a rapid pace but still had the excruciating pain, fevers, chills and developed a strange rash around the corners of my mouth. It was then that I decided to schedule an appointment with my primary care physician.

After asking me a series of questions and performing numerous blood tests, my doctor diagnosed me with mild Systemic Lupus Erythematosus or SLE (for short), an inflammatory autoimmune system disease that affects your internal organs and causes strange bodily functions such as an unexplained fever, muscle and joint aches and pains and chronic fatigue.

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is one of the hardest and most uncomfortable diseases to live with and could take months and years for your doctor to diagnos. Most SLE sufferers are female with the majority of them being African American and Asian. Me being an African American woman already set the risks of me having SLE at very high.