By Jazmin Stein
Unlike some illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and respiratory diseases, lupus is a disease many people tolerate but it is something individuals are unaware of.
Lupus is an autoimmune disease that has no cure and occurs when the immune system attacks vital organs or tissues in the body. According to the Mayo Clinic website, lupus occurs when people experience changes in their body or change their environment.
Lupus has different ways of affecting a person’s system and has diverse types of symptoms. Brenda Torres, a mother from Douglas, Ariz. was diagnosed with lupus in March of 2016. Torres says she knows what may have caused her to be diagnosed with lupus.
“I was 38 years old when I was diagnosed,” Torres said. “It was when I went into menopause. That drastic change made my body go against me.”
Torres says she had symptoms of anemia with heavy bleeding, extreme tiredness, headaches, high blood pressure, and strong corporal pain. Additionally, Torres mentioned she could not stand the sun for a long time, and had red spots on her skin.
Lupus can also affect any other organ such as lungs, heart, and the brain, as well as blood cells, skin, and joints. In this case, Torres’s pair of kidneys were damaged. Among other symptoms there are; headaches, seizures, vomiting, and a spot that appears on the nose and the cheek in the form of a butterfly.
Andrea Ramirez, a college student in Mexico, was diagnosed with lupus when she was 13 years old.
“I never had symptoms that would alert me that something was wrong. But one day, I got red spots on my legs,” Ramirez said. Unlike Torres, Ramirez's only symptoms of her kidney's damage were red spots on her legs.
Lupus is hard to detect because many of the symptoms are similar to other existing diseases that can lead doctors to give the wrong diagnosis. According to the Mayo Clinic website, the signs and symptoms of lupus often mimic those of other ailments. The symptoms that are often mimicked include fever, pain in joints, and headaches.
Lupus is an autoimmune disease that has no cure and occurs when the immune system attacks vital organs or tissues in the body. According to the Mayo Clinic website, lupus occurs when people experience changes in their body or change their environment.
Lupus has different ways of affecting a person’s system and has diverse types of symptoms. Brenda Torres, a mother from Douglas, Ariz. was diagnosed with lupus in March of 2016. Torres says she knows what may have caused her to be diagnosed with lupus.
“I was 38 years old when I was diagnosed,” Torres said. “It was when I went into menopause. That drastic change made my body go against me.”
Torres says she had symptoms of anemia with heavy bleeding, extreme tiredness, headaches, high blood pressure, and strong corporal pain. Additionally, Torres mentioned she could not stand the sun for a long time, and had red spots on her skin.
Lupus can also affect any other organ such as lungs, heart, and the brain, as well as blood cells, skin, and joints. In this case, Torres’s pair of kidneys were damaged. Among other symptoms there are; headaches, seizures, vomiting, and a spot that appears on the nose and the cheek in the form of a butterfly.
Andrea Ramirez, a college student in Mexico, was diagnosed with lupus when she was 13 years old.
“I never had symptoms that would alert me that something was wrong. But one day, I got red spots on my legs,” Ramirez said. Unlike Torres, Ramirez's only symptoms of her kidney's damage were red spots on her legs.
Lupus is hard to detect because many of the symptoms are similar to other existing diseases that can lead doctors to give the wrong diagnosis. According to the Mayo Clinic website, the signs and symptoms of lupus often mimic those of other ailments. The symptoms that are often mimicked include fever, pain in joints, and headaches.
It is important to get an early diagnosis because consequences can be fatal if it isn't treated on time. In Ramirez’s case, her parents decided to medicate her with natural herbs instead of going to the doctor.
Kidneys are in charge of cleaning the blood from toxins. Kidneys process the proteins into the body and get out the toxins from the food we consume. Toxins are the harmful content the food we consume has. So if both kidneys stop working, they would not be able to clean the body, and a person can accumulate high levels of toxins. And those levels are the ones that give the symptoms.
Since Ramirez did not get proper treatment when her kidneys stopped working. The toxin levels in her body increased dramatically.
Doctor Thajudeen, a nephrologist from Banner Health University, says that after a kidney losts its function, a person needs to go to the hospital immediately to prevent intoxication.
“All the toxins that build up in the body are really strong toxins,” said Dr. Thajudeen. “These toxins start accumulating and when they accumulate they will interfere with the function of the cell, and when the cells are not able to function, that will affect the body like the brain, the heart, and it will harm any other organ.”
In order to have a clearer idea of the patient's ailment and prevent intoxications, lab tests need to be done. The lab tests that are used to diagnose lupus are blood tests, ANA tests, urine tests, and common biopsies of the organ that were damaged.
A kidney biopsy is a procedure in which a small part of the kidney is taken away to be studied. An ANA test is used to detect if antinuclear antibodies attacked the body. Urine tests are used to determine if the kidney is sending waste and not blood nor protein. And blood tests, to check if the patients’ blood is under control.
In addition, it is important for doctors to conduct these labs and in order to get a diagnosis as soon as possible. So the next step after being diagnosed is taking medication to maintain a normal lifestyle.
Torres explained in a face to face interview the medications she was given when she was barely diagnosed. She was given 6 doses of chemotherapy intravenously, prednisone intravenously too in pill form, and hydroxychloroquine. The three of them were given to her to control her lupus and try to make her kidneys work. As well for her blood pressure, amlodipine was given to Torres .
Then she explained the side effects of the medications for the kidneys “My hair started to fall when I was taking chemotherapy, I will have nausea, and my skin changed.”
Torres continued about medication for blood pressure, “Prednisone did not make me gain weight but it did make me swell a lot, it gave me many pimples, and caused me a hump. Amlodipine made me cough and sometimes choke, and hydroxychloroquine affected my eyes.”
Lamentably, the medications that were given to Mrs. Torres did not help her kidney to keep working so doctors took another step so she could have a normal life through a process named dialysis. Dialysis is a machine that works the same as the pair of kidneys but with technology.
There are two types of dialysis, hemodialysis and peritoneal. Hemodialysis is a process which cleans blood through a tube. The blood is pumped out of the body and sent to a filter or machine to clean it. After being cleaned, blood goes back again into the body. Hemodialysis is usually done at a clinic rather than at home three times a week.
Peritoneal dialysis has the same commitment as hemodialysis but works differently. Peritoneal may be done at home and at whichever time. Blood is also cleaned but in a different process, blood does not leave the body. With the help of a machine and through some tubes, water would be pumped into the body in order to clean blood. Then through other tubes the waste will go out. For this type of dialysis the patient needs to go through an operation in which a catheter is inserted in the stomach. Torres and Ramirez both did peritoneal dialysis.
Dialysis is a great tool for patients to keep up with their daily life but it does not work as well as the pair of kidneys we have. The next step is having a kidney transplant, and Doctor Thajudeen explains the procedures for the transplant: “A transplant means we are putting a kidney from another human being, it could be a person who is dead or alive. That kidney will work the same way as the individual's own kidneys when they used to work. The only thing is that our own body doesn’t actually accept anything that is foreign. Something the body doesn’t know it's part of, it will try to reject it.”
Thajudeen described what happens when a rejection occurs. He explained that when there is a rejection, the body generates infections. In order to control that, medication is given so the body accepts the new organ. The role of the medication is to sleep the immune system so the body does not reject the organ and create an infection to try to get it out.
Ramirez got her transplant on June 11 2017. Since then she is living a normal life but said that after being operated on she got infections continuously, and was given medication to combat the infection as doctor Thajudeen explained. But even after the transplant is done the patient still needs to take care so the kidney can have a long life in the new body.
Thajudeen said the process following an operation is quite long. “There are usually many different medications that are used so the kidney could last 5 years, 10 years, 15 years. So in order for it to last the patient has to take three medicines, one is Cellcept, Prednison, and Prograf,” said Dr. Thajudeen.
Definitely lupus is an enthralling disease people are unaware of and deserves to be recognized for its vast capacity of information it has on the effects among the human body.
Kidneys are in charge of cleaning the blood from toxins. Kidneys process the proteins into the body and get out the toxins from the food we consume. Toxins are the harmful content the food we consume has. So if both kidneys stop working, they would not be able to clean the body, and a person can accumulate high levels of toxins. And those levels are the ones that give the symptoms.
Since Ramirez did not get proper treatment when her kidneys stopped working. The toxin levels in her body increased dramatically.
Doctor Thajudeen, a nephrologist from Banner Health University, says that after a kidney losts its function, a person needs to go to the hospital immediately to prevent intoxication.
“All the toxins that build up in the body are really strong toxins,” said Dr. Thajudeen. “These toxins start accumulating and when they accumulate they will interfere with the function of the cell, and when the cells are not able to function, that will affect the body like the brain, the heart, and it will harm any other organ.”
In order to have a clearer idea of the patient's ailment and prevent intoxications, lab tests need to be done. The lab tests that are used to diagnose lupus are blood tests, ANA tests, urine tests, and common biopsies of the organ that were damaged.
A kidney biopsy is a procedure in which a small part of the kidney is taken away to be studied. An ANA test is used to detect if antinuclear antibodies attacked the body. Urine tests are used to determine if the kidney is sending waste and not blood nor protein. And blood tests, to check if the patients’ blood is under control.
In addition, it is important for doctors to conduct these labs and in order to get a diagnosis as soon as possible. So the next step after being diagnosed is taking medication to maintain a normal lifestyle.
Torres explained in a face to face interview the medications she was given when she was barely diagnosed. She was given 6 doses of chemotherapy intravenously, prednisone intravenously too in pill form, and hydroxychloroquine. The three of them were given to her to control her lupus and try to make her kidneys work. As well for her blood pressure, amlodipine was given to Torres .
Then she explained the side effects of the medications for the kidneys “My hair started to fall when I was taking chemotherapy, I will have nausea, and my skin changed.”
Torres continued about medication for blood pressure, “Prednisone did not make me gain weight but it did make me swell a lot, it gave me many pimples, and caused me a hump. Amlodipine made me cough and sometimes choke, and hydroxychloroquine affected my eyes.”
Lamentably, the medications that were given to Mrs. Torres did not help her kidney to keep working so doctors took another step so she could have a normal life through a process named dialysis. Dialysis is a machine that works the same as the pair of kidneys but with technology.
There are two types of dialysis, hemodialysis and peritoneal. Hemodialysis is a process which cleans blood through a tube. The blood is pumped out of the body and sent to a filter or machine to clean it. After being cleaned, blood goes back again into the body. Hemodialysis is usually done at a clinic rather than at home three times a week.
Peritoneal dialysis has the same commitment as hemodialysis but works differently. Peritoneal may be done at home and at whichever time. Blood is also cleaned but in a different process, blood does not leave the body. With the help of a machine and through some tubes, water would be pumped into the body in order to clean blood. Then through other tubes the waste will go out. For this type of dialysis the patient needs to go through an operation in which a catheter is inserted in the stomach. Torres and Ramirez both did peritoneal dialysis.
Dialysis is a great tool for patients to keep up with their daily life but it does not work as well as the pair of kidneys we have. The next step is having a kidney transplant, and Doctor Thajudeen explains the procedures for the transplant: “A transplant means we are putting a kidney from another human being, it could be a person who is dead or alive. That kidney will work the same way as the individual's own kidneys when they used to work. The only thing is that our own body doesn’t actually accept anything that is foreign. Something the body doesn’t know it's part of, it will try to reject it.”
Thajudeen described what happens when a rejection occurs. He explained that when there is a rejection, the body generates infections. In order to control that, medication is given so the body accepts the new organ. The role of the medication is to sleep the immune system so the body does not reject the organ and create an infection to try to get it out.
Ramirez got her transplant on June 11 2017. Since then she is living a normal life but said that after being operated on she got infections continuously, and was given medication to combat the infection as doctor Thajudeen explained. But even after the transplant is done the patient still needs to take care so the kidney can have a long life in the new body.
Thajudeen said the process following an operation is quite long. “There are usually many different medications that are used so the kidney could last 5 years, 10 years, 15 years. So in order for it to last the patient has to take three medicines, one is Cellcept, Prednison, and Prograf,” said Dr. Thajudeen.
Definitely lupus is an enthralling disease people are unaware of and deserves to be recognized for its vast capacity of information it has on the effects among the human body.