General Medicine

» angiegould - My mom and Lupus and Crohns

Hello, I am horribly worried about my mom. She began a flare up in January of 2006 - unbeknown to the doctors as they were attributing her hospital stays and symptoms to her crohns, after an attack on her pancreas and more testing, different docs it was diagnosed as Lupus (she still has the crohns and has since 1986) The Lupus diagnosis took about 5 months. It is now October and she is still very tired, she walks around very slow like she is 80, she is in pain all the time, and she cant seem to shake the flare up at all - they switched her from an anti-malerial drug to prednisone but she seems to have horrible cravings with the prednisone (sugar) which isnt normal for her. My mom is 57 and until this year she was active and despite having a full clostomy (spelling) she lived a rather normal life.... any ideas for her to get out of her flare period? Are some people always in a flare up? What induces (if anything) a remission period? - Its so upsetting to see this happening to her. I am trying to help her learn to be an advocate for her own wellness. Can you give me some advise for her?

-- posted by angiegould