Providing Answers, Support and Hope in Georgia

Thirty-One Faces of Hope: Stacy Collins

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. 

Stacy Collins

Autoimmune disease runs in my family. One of my older sisters has lupus and my younger sister has rheumatoid arthritis.

I was diagnosed with lupus in 2015 right after Memorial Day Weekend. I had spent about 45 minutes outside in the sun on Memorial Day wearing shorts and a tank top. I didn’t burn, but the next day I began breaking out with a itchy, raised rash. It continued to get worse and spread, and after a couple of days I went to my family physician who ran some tests. The results showed up in MyChart the following weekend. I was physically sick to my stomach when I read that I was positive for Lupus. I was referred to a rheumatologist.

The diagnosis actually did explain a lot of things. For several years I had been so fatigued that I often had to take naps on my lunch breaks, and on weekends I would fall asleep sitting up in a chair.

Within a year of my diagnosis, in addition to the fatigue, I had such intense joint point that I had trouble getting in and out of my car and was considering filing for disability. Around that time, my rheumatologist mentioned a fairly new treatment option, belimumab, the first drug developed specifically for the treatment of lupus. 

Within months of beginning the belimumab, I was feeling so much better I started an exercise program and lost 50 lbs. Now I am continuing to exercise at the gym several times a week, and about a month ago I beat my teenage daughter to the top of Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia. I also participated in my first Lupus Walk. It is so important to continue to raise funds for research and development of additional lupus treatments.

- Stacy Collins