Elisette B. - Diagnosed Age 22

My name is Elisette and my story is as complicated as my life. I was diagnosed with SLE in 2009. It was a day that I will never get out of my mind. I had a still birth a couple months prior that caused an infection. I was also very anemic and I started getting a fever that would not go away. I started losing my hair and getting extremely skinny. It hurt to walk or move. I had the butterfly rash and blisters in my mouth. The doctors in the emergency room every time I would go would think I had AIDS. The doctors did a bone biopsy and sent me to an oncologist.

I was so scared, I never heard of lupus or what the disease could do to my body. My mom had to support me every time I walked and gave me her cane because I couldn't move. In 2010 they started me on Plaquenil and prednisone. I started feeling better little by little. I had my first daughter in 2010 and then my second daughter in 2013. They are the reason why I have survived the everyday pains I feel. I am currently taking Coumadin for a Pulmonary Embolism and Plaqueneil twice a day.

I was on disability for 9 years, but I have decided to go back to work and I have been ok. Every day will always be a struggle. It’s hard at times to just get up and make dinner when I get home from work or take my kids to shower, but being alive and having my daughters always there encouraging me to push through is what keeps me going. Lupus has taught me to live my life to the fullest because from one day to the next you don't know how your body will act. I have participated in the walk in Miami and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life. The picture attached is me in 2009 just got diagnosed with SLE.