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| *Women health>>>Lupus |
My sister is struggling with lupus, What can be done? |
Nothing the doctors do for her seem to help. her legs and face swell real bad and she is in a lot of pain. I'm scared of losing her. Any advice Please? Lupus is particularly challenging for the medical community to manage, so it makes it all that much more difficult for people living with it, and also their loved ones. If your sister is experiencing an onset of significant swelling right now she could probably benefit from a course of IV steroids or one of the other treatments for Lupus. Systemic Lupus comes with mainly inflammatory reactions so steroids do feature prominently as a treatment. Steroids have an abundance of not-so-fun side effects which is just one of the reasons why anyone living with it should be in a good support group such as you find online or one that meets regularly near your home. You also, should get into a support forum or group for family members and friends (sometimes called caregivers) of people with Lupus. The right group is going to be incredibly helpful, reassuring, and educational. And you sound scared so I think it will be good for you. The more you know, the more you can support your sister. Now, for pain, depending upon how bad and how chronic it is she may want to ask her doctor about Low Dose Methadone. There's a stigma to it but it really does help with the majority of nervous system related pain syndromes. You can check out the website below or do a search on "Methadone for Pain" on the Internet. Methadone, even at a very low does will cause her to become physically dependent (addicted) to the drug. This stinks. I'm sure there are lots of other pain meds that work, but I have a similar type of pain as many Lupus patients and nothing else worked for me, which is why I suggest it. It is often harder to be a caregiver than the actual patient with Lupus. You mention losing your sister so, the following is from the Lupus Organization's website, answering the question, "Is it fatal?" There is much more reading on it at the website itself. 4. Is lupus a fatal disease? Lupus is not a universally fatal disease. In fact, today with close follow-up and treatment, 80-90% of the people with lupus can expect to live a normal life span. Lupus does vary in intensity and degree, however, and there are people who have a mild case, there are those who have a moderate case and there are some who have a severe case of lupus, which tends to be more difficult to treat and bring under control.... I hope this is helpful and I really hope you find a good, active, with lots of members, online support group. My best to you and your sister. Source(s): Methadone for Pain: http://www.mywhatever.com/cifwriter/libr... Lupus Support http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&... Frequently Asked Questions about Lupus, including "Is it fatal?" http://www.lupus.org/education/faq.html... Cymbalta works very good for most people with lupus or fibromyalgia pain. If u a kristian u shewd pray an if u not God can save yo sista if u come 2 him How is lupus treated? The majority of symptoms of lupus are due to inflammation and so the treatment is aimed at reducing that inflammation. This can be done through a number of different medications. There are four families of medications used in the treatment of lupus. They include: Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs - drugs such as ibuprofen (Advil & Motrin), naproxen, (Naprosyn & Aleve), sulindac (Clinoril), piroxicam (Feldene), diclofenac (Voltaren) to name a few. Corticosteroids - drugs such as prednisone, prednisolone, medrol, deltasone, cortisone and others. Anti-malarials - these have been found to be effective in treating the joint pain, skin rashes and ulcers that some people develop on the inside of their nose or mouth. Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) is probably the most commonly prescribed anti-malarial drug in the United States. There is no known relationship between lupus and malaria. The fourth family of medications, immunosuppressants (or immunomodulating) /chemotherapy, is generally reserved for those individuals who have the most severe flares of lupus; or to enable the steroid dose to be reduced. A severe flare is one that affects an organ to the degree that the function is impaired. When this happens something has to be done to preserve the function of the organ and that's when immunosuppressive or chemotherapy medications are prescribed. These actually suppress the over activity of the immune system brought on by the lupus, and help limit the damage and preserve the function of the involved organ. (Lupus is NOT a form of cancer). The majority of people who have lupus are treated with the first three families of medications, the nonsteroidals, corticosteroids and the anti-malarial drugs. These may be used either alone or in combination. Since individuals respond differently to medications, it may take time before you are able to determine, through trial & error, which medication at which dose provides relief of the symptoms of lupus. Frequently physicians will try one medication see how it works and if it doesn't work, they may have to change the dose or switch to another medication. |
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