Lupus patients desire to raise awareness, not sympathy

[TexasTowelie]

The last thing Samantha Acuna wants is sympathy for her condition.

When she was 11, Acuna’s parents took her to the doctor at the request of her sister, who noticed she was acting different than usual.

“They thought that I was going to die because they didn’t know what it was,” she said. “I remember going to the doctor at a walk-in clinic and they took all these labs. We were there for hours. It was me, my mom and my brother. The doctor came in and told my mom, ‘You need to take her to the hospital right now because we don’t know what’s wrong with her.’ … So we dropped my brother at home, picked up my dad and went straight to the hospital. I was there for two weeks because they didn’t know what was wrong. That was August of 2001.”

Tests and observations finally led doctors to a diagnosis. At 11 years old, Acuna was diagnosed with lupus.

What is it?

Doctors in Lubbock were unavailable or declined interview requests by the Avalanche-Journal about the disease.

More at http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-05-12/lupus-patients-desire-raise-awareness-not-sympathy#.U3KiSygbHJU .

[Xipe Totec]

1. It is such a mysterious disease

Hard to diagnose, hard to fathom, hard to deal with.

I feel at a loss for how to help, or how to comfort, or how to express my deep sympathy for all beings who suffer.