my mom's complicated health

I was really touched when Edz tagged me with a meme about a prayer on Lupus and Cancer patients.

I think most of you don’t know but my mom has this condition called SLE – Systemic Lupus Erythematosus also known as “LUPUS” (a lifetime condition). She was diagnosed with this illness last 2002, but have been experiencing symptoms of it since 1995. Btw, my mom got this illness because of STRESS and not because of her genes.

I can still remember then, I was in 3rd year highschool when my mom was rushed to the hospital because of severe weakness. At the hospital, doctors had a hard time determining her sickness. They were also surprised when my mom’s blood count abruptly drops after a transfusion. The doctor even told my dad “na parang may sumisipsip sa dugo niya”. So, when they said that my dad decided to transfer him to Children’s Medical Center, now known as Dr.Fe Del Mundo Hospital.

That hospital really saved my mom’s life. The doctors there specialize on blood diseases like Leukemia and all sorts, that’s why they knew what to do when they saw my mom. She was then diagnosed with Hemolytic Anemia.

After that, all was well. Her doctors said it’s not life-threatening so they gave us some instruction on how to maintain my mom’s health. Years after, my mom experienced some symptoms that are unusual for anemia patients. That was the time when her doctors start testing her on “LUPUS”. She was negative for several years, but became positive by 2002.

When I was younger I linked the term “LUPUS” as the dreadful disease that killed former Pres. Marcos. But when my mom was diagnosed with the disease, it wasn’t that dreadful after all, maybe because we accepted it freely with a slightly broken heart. And good thing, her doctors oriented us with the disease and told us that it’s up to us on how to make things healthy. And because they also told me that the former President didn’t die on Lupus, he died from its complications.

Now it’s 2008 and as expected my mom had some complications. She had Diabetes last year and just recently had “Lupus Vasculitis” – the inflammation of small blood vessels. Vasculitis is not life threatening because it only affects the small blood vessels of our body. But as proven by my mom, this complication is painful. Hay, if only God can grant me one wish in my whole lifetime, I would definitely wish for my mom’s health to be close to perfect!

Though we’re still thankful that my mom’s doing fine even though she’s burden with these complications.

Hay, life! You’ll never know what in store for you in the future.