An Intro into My Condition

Hey guys! It's Courteney here, and I suppose I'm here to tell you a little about how to live with an autoimmune disease. I'll be posting a series of blogs to explain what it's like to live with an illness, as well as shed some light on to deal with it and still live a healthy lifestyle.

Firstly, however, I should explain my situation.

I'm a 22 year old of whom has been fighting an ongoing illness since I was 16. Now, I must say there are many other people out there with much worse conditions than my own, and my heart goes out to every one of those people!

My condition took its times to grow. It started off with chronic fatigue. Months of sore muscles and exhaustion, many hours of sleep. A year later i had gotten pneumonia, whilst struggling with that I was sent to hospital with blood clots, I was diagnosed with cardiolipin antibodies -I've been on warfarin ever since. The following year I was hospitalised with low platelets, my body was covered in bruises, even the slightest touch would bruise my skin, so much so my brother quite literally drew a smile on my back as a test, and it bruised by the end of the day. My mouth would be full of blood from my gums each morning, my lips stained red. I was diagnosed with thrombocytopenia. This led to my diagnoses of Lupus, an autoimmune disease of which your immune system attacks itself. We were, of course shocked by the news as anyone would be, however I was grateful to have an answer. A year later I was diagnosed with arthritis, I could barely move, the skin on my face had practically peeled off, I had no choice but to wear makeup when going out in public, no matter how much it had hurt.

Since then it's mostly been flaring up and the occasional blood clot. Thankfully no further developments.

So that's me! A 22 year old women, living with arthritis and chronic fatigue, on warfarin and hequinel. And that's Lupus for you!

Throughout this series I will be able to explain to you just how I've been able to live my life with an autoimmune disease, specifically Lupus. I can assure you, I've managed to live it well, and so far, I've been able to mould a life I love!

Thanks for reading!

Court xx