I very nearly lost my first wife to Lupus in the early 1980's. She was being treated by a doctor who initially thought she had appendicitis, so out came the appendix, then she got ill again, and all the same symptoms reappeared, and on and on it went. The doctor even told me that she had some kind of weird arthritis because of one of the symptoms (being very sore joints). When she finally got so ill, and had to be admitted to hospital, the doctor told me that she had luekemia, but wasn't real sure because he was still testing her for a very rare disease that is carried by bats. That's when I thought it was all my fault, because I was a caver (but she wasn't), and naturally every time I went caving I would come into contact with bats.

She got so thin in hospital, her weight dropped really dramatically, she was almost skin and bone. Her eyes were terrible, they were jet black and looked like little pools of ink, she lost most of her hair, and I knew she was dying.

Thr Matron of the hospital called me aside one day and did something she really wasn't supposed to, she asked me to contact another doctor who she knew was good, at what she believed was an immunilogical disorder, and to discharge the current treating doctor. I did what she asked, the new doctor came in, checked out all the test results, and within a day had diagnosed her with Lupus.
He put her on a drug called ENDOXAN, she responded almost immediately, and could even eat (before, she couldn't keep any food down at all), within weeks she had put on weight, and her hair started growing back, all the symptoms disappeared etc etc.
When she was finally released from hospital she was given PREDNISONE to take, because PREDNISONE (it treats lots of conditions) actually balances out the immune system, and the Lupus is held in check.
She has to take Prednisone for the rest of her life...she stops taking it, she dies...period !!!!

We had it explained to us what Lupus is. In the normal body, when you get certain diseases like measles or chicken pox, stuff like that, you body's immune system recognises the disease as something foreign and produces anti-bodies to combat those diseases. Those anti-bodies are then always produced, so therefore you don't get that particular disease again.
With Lupus, the inmmune system goes awry, and messes up, it recognises a vital organ as alien and anti-bodies are produced accordingly to attack that particular organ or organs in your body.....in most cases it's the joints, your liver or your kidneys....that's the common kind, there are other kinds that are worse.
So your body is actually producing little soldiers to kill yourself.

Just another little bit of interesting information here about Lupus.
It was first discovered in Asian women who lived in western countries.
(My first wife was Asian, and had only been in-country about 10 years).
In fact it was almost exclusively confined to Asian women. Since then, it has started to affect other races, slowly but surely the scale has risen with other races being diagnosed with that disease, so that now, anyone can get it.

The name ???? Lupus = Latin for "Wolf".
One of the symptoms is a rash on each cheek of your face....kinda makes one look wolfish.

Who knows what causes these diseases.....but I thank God for that Matron at the hospital, if not for her, I would have lost my wife within a few weeks, thats how far gone she was.
Wom