Living with a Chronic Illness and running a business.

Living with a Chronic Illness and running a business isn’t for the faint of heart. It gets ugly because sometimes your body says ” Stay in bed its warm here” Yet your mind and your heart say ” Hey get up we have calls today and client proposals to send out”  Living with an Autoimmune Disease or Chronic Illness isn’t fun. Here is my story and thank you for reading it.

March 2004–

I was waking up really early at about 3 am in the morning with my knee hurting. It got to the point where my mom was noticing that I was getting up and I told her one morning” My knee hurts mom”. I think she made a doctor’s appointment for me and I had blood work done and only to find out that my ANA ( test is used as a primary test to help evaluate a person for autoimmune disorders) was really high and that I was borderline with it being LUPUS or systemic lupus erythematosus. (SLE is your immune system attacks healthy tissue in your body or the major organs… It attacked my kidneys). I went home and pretty much didn’t do much about. I was sick at the time with a cough and looking back that might have been the breaking point.

April 2004–

I started to gain weight, I had my mom take me to the hospital they didn’t find anything.. they pretty much said: ” I was probably going to start my period reason for the bloating”. Yeah not cool huh. A few weeks later I was at work and out of nowhere I ended up throwing up and one of the girls at work said ” Gabbie you should go home” I  called my mom and said I don’t feel good. I told her pretty much crying and frustrated that something wasn’t right. She said Yeah your right. We head to the hospital and I  remember waiting in the waiting room. At this point, my sides were hurting and I had problems walking. Once I was called they ran tests and a while later the doctor came in and said ” You should be here because of your insurance” YAY for living in the UNITED STATES .not to get political in any way but the insurance I had at the time was new in the area and you had to go to certain hospitals if you had that insurance.BUT they still treated me and I was sent to a specialist a nephrologist. ( nephrologist  is a doctor that works with patients with kidney issues).

 May 2004–

Early May 2004 went by fast tons of blood and urine tests. At this point, I just wanted to feel better. I got diagnosed with Lupus Nephritis.  I also had to get a kidney biopsy and that wasn’t fun.I was put on oral chemo to stop my body from doing more damage to my kidneys and I hoped for the best. I had a denial stage, it lasted for a week and I remember hating the pity party that followed. I HATED it. All I wanted was to get better and really just sleep. The crazy thing is May is Lupus awareness month. It still boggles my mind that I got diagnosed officially in May.

2019 30 something-year-old Gabbie–

I treat each day as a new chapter in my life. I take each day at a time and while my body might be having a war on its own. I can’t let it stop me from living a somewhat normal life right? Some days during early fall I start feeling pain due to the weather changing. My knees start hurting and so do my bones. It’s part of my life and yeah it might “suck” but I’m very fortunate that I’m able to walk and get up every day and still manage to see life in a very optimistic way. I wouldn’t call myself wonder women because I’ve been to hell and back as the saying goes. I got battle scars and this is my story. I hope others find a balance with their Chronic Illness and make their dreams a reality.