Providing Answers, Support and Hope in Georgia
Thirty-One Faces of Hope: Regina Olmstead
The lupus community includes people living with lupus, friends, family and supporters across Georgia. For Lupus Awareness Month, we would like to highlight some of our lupus heroes and champions.
Regina Olmstead, Newnan Support Group Facilitator
My name is Regina Olmstead and I have Lupus. Two of my sisters, Sharon Davis and Pam Bennett, also have Lupus. Sharon passed in 2006 from complications from lupus and diabetes. It is clear that lupus has really had a huge impact on our lives.
I was diagnosed when I was 17-years-old. I have had a lot of ups and downs over the years. I have also learned to live with a tremendous amount of pain and a lot of ridicule from well-meaning people who simply do not understand the disease. When I was first diagnosed, most of the people I encountered had never heard of lupus. Therefore, I thought it was something to be ashamed of and I didn't talk about it very much. Even the doctor who diagnosed me told me not to make any long range plans. That was not a very encouraging thing to tell a 17-year-old girl.
Well guess what? I didn't die! Thank God! Here I am writing about it all these years later! I was told that I shouldn't have children, but as it turns out, I had one anyway --- I never was a good listener. I have a wonderful daughter who is 35-years-old and happily, she shows no signs of having lupus. I had a very hard pregnancy. The doctors didn't know much about lupus and I felt that as much as they tried their best, they simply did not know what to do.
In 2009, I contracted the H1N1 flu, and had MRSA pneumonia. I spent almost a month in a coma and on life support. Then I had to have two months of rehab to learn how to use my arms again and to walk. I have also had several sinus surgeries.
After I recovered the doctors diagnosed me with CVID/Hypogammaglobinemia. Basically, I have no immune system. For the rest of my life I have to give myself weekly infusions of a medication that gives me an immune system. Now, I am having multiple joint pain. My knees are so swollen and painful it is hard to walk. I need shoulder surgery and my hands are in so much pain and are difficult to use.
I am really excited to have become involved with the Georgia Chapter of the Lupus Foundation. My family and I have participated in every walk since the first one in 2007. Participating in the walk and coming up with the idea for selling the butterflies has brought more joy into my life than you can imagine. It makes me feel so much better to be doing something positive to fight back against this awful disease. It is so nice being able to talk to other lupus patients and know that someone else understands what we are all going through. We can sympathize with one another because we have some of the same problems.
The Lupus Foundation is doing an excellent job getting the information to the people who need it the most and I try to do my part as the facilitator of our Newnan Support Group I know that my doctor, Kimberly Wilson, M.D., is also involved with the Foundation and that gives me comfort also.
I have had a wonderful support system. In addition to my daughter Tori, God had gifted me with two daughters that Bo had from a previous marriage, Jennifer and Stacy. And now, I have two beautiful granddaughters, Rachel and Caroline. My husband, Bo has stuck with me through thick and thin and he has had to become a caregiver on top of everything else. No one knows more than a lupus caregiver, how difficult our lives can be. I love this man so much and appreciate all he does. I don't think I could have gotten by without him.
- Regina Olmstead