Night all, sorry didn't see much of me today

[Wendy]

Hello friends.

Sorry I was not around much today, as always happens to me, I needed sleep. I don't sleep in the car travelling and I drove the first half. But I had also sent a message to my step daughter out west to call me when I got back home Friday evening and I had told her to call me whenever. There is a 2 hour time difference so I knew it would be late. It was, so besides the trip from yesterday, I got a call from her at about 3 or 4 in the morning here, and we talked for over an hour. Man that kid has got problems and having moved back in with her dad has not helped. And as usual, he doesn't have a clue what is going on with her, he just thinks if he buys her something that makes up for it. Well if doesn't, and now her mother is sick once again. She had a stroke less then a year ago, and now they have found something else wrong that indicates some kind of cancer. That has thrown my step daughter into a depression, and once again I am trying to get her to just get out of there and go and live with her mom. She agrees with me, but I know the first thing that her father thinks of if she goes to live with her mom, is that he has to pay child support. Real caring person that man. But hopefully she goes, and I am waiting for her to get back to me. I also sent a message to her mom, letting her know the advice I gave her daughter and why, so she would have the heads up. So now I guess I can just wait and hope.
SHe is very close to her mom, but when she needs to talk about her mom being ill and how it is effecting her, she calls me. And her mom knows that, she wrote me and thanked me for being there for her. April just doesn't want her mom to know just how stressed she is and how she is worrying about it. Anyway, besides my parents, this is the other thing that is weighing heavy on my mind.

I still got up to go to the 25th Wedding Anniversary Party for John and Carol, Bruce's friends. (actually they are both the twins friends, but Barry lives in London). I have met allot of the rest of their family so it was nice to see them all, and its always fun to go out. The pool was totally full of kids though, and the adults basically sat around and socialized. They had a huge spread out for dinner, and they have a bar outside too, and a hottub besides the pool, just a really nice plale for a big crowd, about a hundred people were there. I think about 50 percent were kids, lol.
Anyway it was nice to go out, but had to sleep allot in the day to make it tonight, and am back to the fatigue being overwhelming. Gosh it takes so long to get me back on a level health plain once I go against my usual balancing act.
I had just posted something about getting mouth sores, and behold I developed a cold sore, and then mouth sores throughout my mouth, and terrible ones in my right ear. My glands are totally swollen and none of it is going away too quick. The other weird thing that happened to me this past week is that I had a bright red area form on my cheeks and across my nose. It looked like I had a burn, but hadn't been in the sun, and it lasted over a week. The other thing I have been getting bumps on my arms, almost like a rash, and my skin goes bright red. My mom keeps wondering if I really have Lupus, like she was diagnosed with, and I hope not. I also had that rash on body a few months back, but please let it be just anomolies of Fibro.

And now folks, thats it for tonight. And I am going to sleep, and sleep some more.

Oh, there is that one other thing about Amanda. We talked tonight and she went to see two different specialists to find out further what caused the problems with her miscarrying. It seems there was something wrong with the fetus, her hormone levels were good, and everything else that was abnormal had to do with the baby. He told her that she would have lost it eventually no matter what she did. But she also found out that in other regards to her health and trying once again, she is doing great. They wanted her to wait another month or two before trying again, but they couldnt see any forseeable problems. And they could be dealt with if anything came up when she was pregnant once again. She is happy about that and is ready to try once again, and I am ready for being a gramma to.

Night all
Hugs
Wendy

[tex]

Hi Wendy,

I'm sorry to read about the problems you have been having, but it's good to see you back on the board again.

I hesitate to mention this, because, as you know, I'm not a doctor, so I certainly can't make a diagnosis, and I don't want to upset you unnecessarily, but your description of the rash on your face, certainly sounds like the famous "butterfly rash", that is characteristic of systemic lupus erythematosus. Sometimes the rash precedes SLE by weeks or months. The other skin lesions are also probably connected with SLE. If your ANA reading is not elevated, it may just be discoid lupus erythematosus, which affects only the skin.

The rash will go away without any treatment, but the SLE will not. If it is SLE, it's possible that it may be drug-induced, IOW, you may be having a reaction against one or more of the drugs that you are taking. It's also possible that the disease may be completely resolved, by discontinuing the use of the drug that's causing it. Have you been taking any of the following drugs for at least 3 to 6 months?

procainamide
isoniazid
chlorpromazine
penicillamine
sulfasalazine
hydralazine
methyldopa
quinidine

If so, your doctor should be able to advise you about possibly making a substitution, or substitutions, before the disease has a chance to really get going.

Please see your doctor about this.

Hugs,
Wayne