Guest Blogger - My Very First!

A friend of mine from Facebook, and a fellow lupus sufferer, wrote an inspiring, passionate, humble, beautiful... well, why don't I let you read it for yourself. Thank you, Norma Jeane Smith, for letting me share your thoughts on my blog.

"I do not ever want to take away from anyone suffering from cancer. It is a serious disease...but has the potential of being cured. To me...and I mean NO offense...I feel that Lupus is a little like cancer...without any cure. It has a potential remission...but not a potential cure. It is frustrating, hurtful, and horribly disgusting how dismissive people can be until you die from it. I have never, as a nurse, seen so little regard for a disease, that mistakenly attacks and destroys its own body, no rhyme or reason or method to its madness. It attacks an organ, or several in most of our cases...like it attacks a virus. It hurts us until there is nothing left...everyday. As destructive as the disease is, people that doubt the seriousness of Lupus should try and spend a moment in the shoes of the one they doubt. Lupus sufferers should not have to prove the suffering...do not want it...nor should they have to have a visible sign/tumor to be seen outwardly in order to be believed. John said something wonderfully honest...that being those that believe you do...and those that don't won't. It isn't something you can just tough out until it is healed...it is NOT a bruise or a cold. It is the attack of our bodies on themselves for no known reason and it does not go away...Air can not be seen, but you know it is there...if you doubt it...take it away and I bet you will believe it was real. Lupus is like air, except we wish it were absent...unlike air. If anyone should doubt it, let them carry it for a moment. Not something I wish for them to have happen...but I do not know how else to create the compassion we deserve. Alzheimer's, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes, Thyroid issues, Crohn's Disease...to name a few...are also autoimmune diseases that others may have. Dismissing someone with Lupus or any other Autoimmune Disease just because you do not understand it, see it, know enough about it is inexcusable. How dare anyone who has ever breathed air that can not be seen by their own eyes...decide for someone else they are not truly ill because they can not feel or see within the person they have dismissed. To that person, or anyone else that feel Lupus is not real...Please imagine yourself without air for a few moments...struggling to convince the ones around you that you really can't breathe as they doubt you because they are able to breath with ease. You can not outwardly see asthma, autism, a heart attack, a headache, a cold virus, a toothache...so many things great and small that aren't even autoimmune related...but when it is YOUR's to carry, you will know it is real. I promise you this...if anyone was going to fake anything...I am certain it would not be Lupus...or anything that Prednisone is drug of choice! And if you aren't sure what that means...Like a funny joke that has to be explained...take it for a few months and get back with the ones you doubted because explaining it takes away from the punch line it packs! You can not fool blood work and specific labs, fake seizures, strokes, kidney failure, heart failure, hair loss, facial scarring and rashes, inflammation of joints and muscles, just to list some common things you would be attempting...just saying...it is SO ignorant to disbelieve, doubt, or dismiss someone for what you do not understand first hand. I can't SEE your ignorance...but I know it is there. We may die before you believe it, acknowledge it, etc. That is your choice and your right. You may HOPE that it will be dropped if you pretend we don't exist, or ignore us like some have tried with slavery, the Holocaust, or other tragedies in time. But remember this from your history lessons...one voice may be easy to silence...divided...you could continue on your way...united...you can not. We will educate you or we will expose you...gain your choice...but OUR right! As the men and women before us have found in all struggles of life...When they came together to fight for the very right to freedom, to vote, to be equal, to be heard...have done before us...we will do as well. It may even be that you have helped us in our plight to be recognized by your ignorance. It may be that you just want your name to be known. But you have messed with the wrong crowd...I pray you truly never know first hand how real Lupus is. I also pray you first think before you speak or plan on your name/face being synonymous with the words ignorant idiot...All our love, or all our might...you choose, but you are taking one tough crowd."