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Jan 20, 2025 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Candace J. Semien |Marisa Zeppieri |Kristiana Page |Kellie McRae
Near the end of 2024, the support group Lupus in Color posted the following “lupus serenity prayer” on Instagram:“God, grant me the serenity to accept the changes and challenges of living with lupus, the courage to face each day with strength, and the wisdom to do what’s good for my mind, body, and soul as I seek the support and treatment I need for a healthier life.”This prayer was written by Lupus in Color founder Racquel Dozier. It asks for serenity, courage, and wisdom.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Marisa Zeppieri |Marisa Wexler |Candace J. Semien
As another year draws to a close, I find myself reflecting not only on the milestones of the past 12 months, but also on the journey that’s brought me to this moment. When I look back at the years when I was so sick, growing up with unexplainable pain and fatigue, I never imagined I would make it this far. I was just a child when I first began to feel the weight of my illness, and by the time I was diagnosed with lupus in my 20s, the prognosis seemed grim.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Marisa Zeppieri |Candace J. Semien
It’s no secret that living with lupus or other chronic illnesses often feels like a constant game of tug-of-war. One part of us aches to chase after our dreams, tackle projects, and seize life, while the other part is continually reminded of the need to slow down, conserve energy, and avoid flares. I often liken it to an emotional and physical seesaw, one that few understand unless they’ve walked our road. The hardest part of this balancing act is the unpredictability.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Candace J. Semien |Patricia Inacio |Marisa Zeppieri
Hester Prynne is being condemned for a private act that became a public sin. After being freed from jail, she’s led to stand on a scaffold before a crowd of villagers. She’s holding her 3-month-old baby and wearing an embroidered letter “A” on her cloak, both attesting to what she did. Prynne is the main character in “The Scarlet Letter,”written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and published in 1850. She is a young English woman sent to Puritan Massachusetts to wait for her husband’s arrival.
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Oct 2, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Candace J. Semien |Andrea Lobo |Patricia Inacio |Marisa Zeppieri
More than 20 years ago, Christine Miserandino explained living with systemic lupus erythematosus, the most common form of lupus, as having only a metaphorical “12 spoons” of energy a day. Her spoon theory does a great job of representing the tightrope walk of survival that we endure. The spoon theory became widely known throughout the lupus community, but it doesn’t offer a plan to manage the spoons. However, Bionews columnists and others have offered their survival strategies.
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Aug 14, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Marisa Zeppieri |Patricia Inacio |Candace J. Semien
Whether you’re healthy or living with a chronic illness, navigating a new friendship is always a delicate dance. For those of us with lupus (or possibly multiple autoimmune diseases), it can be difficult to explain why we’re suddenly MIA for days, or even weeks, at a time. Welcome to life with chronic illness, where our social calendar is more unpredictable than a toddler with a crayon.
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Aug 7, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Candace J. Semien |Patricia Inacio |Marisa Wexler |Andrea Lobo
Few things are more enjoyable to me than reading and listening to great stories. Reading until I’m practically hypnotized is top-tier entertainment. In the physical process of reading, the eyes move left to right, capturing paragraphs and pages that trigger imaginative connections of sounds, emotions, and images. Our energy shifts with a character’s impulsive behavior or an unexpected plot twist. Well-crafted memoirs and narratives can also prompt clarity and introspection.
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Aug 1, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Patricia Inacio |Mary Chapman |Candace J. Semien |Steve Bryson
The vast majority of people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) experience musculoskeletal symptoms, marked by pain, ache, discomfort, and numbness, often in the joints, primarily the hands, wrists, and knees. That’s according to a study from researchers in Egypt, which also found that musculoskeletal symptoms were associated with a significant detrimental impact across several domains of a patient’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL), including physical health and emotional well-being.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Marisa Zeppieri |Candace J. Semien
Summer always puts me on high alert, because historically, it’s the time of year when I go into a major lupus flare. Like many lupus patients, sun and heat are my top triggers. In my area of the Carolinas, daily temperatures have felt like 100 degrees or more lately. Like clockwork, I ended up in the hospital with yet another flare — almost the same week as last year. This uninvited guest seems to love to make an appearance in June, casting a shadow over what should be fun summer days.
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Jul 24, 2024 | 
lupusnewstoday.com | Candace J. Semien |Patricia Inacio |Marisa Zeppieri
I’m holding two bags of medicine recently prescribed to tackle a new condition that has caused me neurological damage. It’s another unprovoked manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus.
