Lupus? Is it termnal?

Question

Lupus? Is it termnal?

Answer 1

Lupus can definately be terminal.  It varies from patient to patient.  The most difficult thing about Lupus is it's wide range of symptoms and how it affects everyone differently.  Some people only experience joint pain and tiredness while others have severe organ involvement, kidneys, lungs, heart, brain and die from the disease.  

The most important thing is to keep in constant contact with your doctors and properly take your medications.  These can increase your odds of living a long life.  However, if Lupus flares begin to attack the organs it can and often is a different story.  My 30 year old wife who has severe organ involved Lupus had 8 heart attacks last year and flat lined on 5 of those (all while in the hospital, thank God).  Her kidneys are also affected by the disease.  So yes, in the end Lupus can be terminal.

Answer 2

There is a lot of variation in symptoms and prognosis.  Lupus is normally manageable with modern medicine, but treatment is not without side effects.  Any use of immuno-supressants to prevent the body attacking itself, also makes the patient more vulnerable to infections.  

Early intervention is important to limit any organ and nerve  damage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_lu...

Answer 3

Have you been watching Seinfeld or House?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT38yJGzR...

Answer 4

My personal view on lupus is that it is caused by infection-

as with much autoimmune illness-The story is the same from most doctors that they dont know the cause or the best treatments-but I know for a fact of many doctors who think it is  infections like chronic lyme disease that can cause it.

People can also be born with serious infections that cause problems throughout their lives-they end up getting treated for the wrong things in many cases.

My course of action was to trace doctors who know about chronic infection and treat it.Do a search and you will find alternative help.If you need some clinics I can suggest some.

Answer 5

Sadly it is very misunderstood and often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.  I lost my daughter to it in february.  It attacked all her major organs, she developed shingles which then became infected time and time again, her immune system was so weakened that she had nothing to fight the infections with and although they took her to intensive care, she went into cardiac arrest and passed away.

The most important thing anyone with Lupus can do for themselves is communicate with your medical team, all the time.    You will read about fad diets, giving up this, giving up that, we tried them all, and to be frank, none of them made the slightest difference.  Once my daughter  developed haemolytic anaemia it seemed a lot of staff members had no idea what they were dealing with and treated it at first as normal anaemia.  They prescribed her anti biotics which made her vomit constantly, this caused her to dehydrate despite the saline drip and so of course her kidneys began to fail.  Any medic with the slightest knowledge of Lupus would have known that kidney failure in Lupus patients is almost certain and the fact they ignored this important fact certainly contributed to my loss.

It can be medicated and not all cases are as tragic as my daughter's was, but never let anyone under estimate the seriousness of Lupus.

Answer 6

used to be,not anymore.still serious,but considered long term,chronic illness,not terminal illness.

Answer 7

depends on type, treatment, s*x  and age of patient and systems that are affected.