Lupus: What really happened

I thought i would add to this one since every piece of blog is too long to write at a time. I mean i dont want to write a whole long blog to explain a whole long list of what happened.

Let us recap the eventful turn once again:

I was lethargic with extreme mood swings. I had difficulty swallowing, sometimes difficulty in breathing because my throat feels tight and my jaw hurts. My face was utterly puffy until I look quite different from normal. I was exercising but instead of going down my weight went all the way up. I was really irritated and uncomfortable even on the smallest thing. I also had painful heartburn.

Now my normal face is actually like this. As you can see the swelling and puffyness was extremely awful. People might think that i've gone fat or something but i was actually really sick. Its all swelling and fluid retention.

Like i said, i went to a number of clinic and ENT but none of them can ascertain what happened to me. For them because there is no sign of infection, they just gave painkillers and anti-inflammatory pills. The diagnosis came from my brother as he is a consultant radiologist in UH and he found that my glands were swollen and so did the subcutaneous tissue surrounding it.

The rheumatologist at first thought it is just Sjogren Syndrome because of the apparent symptom of the swollen parotid glands but further tests has shown that i have a high dsDNA which is only apparent in LSE sufferers.

 The steroid pushes the swelling down and my face is back to normal. My girth is also loosening and my weight is down to 55kg. My normal weight would be around 52-53kg usually so i have to try to loose another 2kg or at least maintain it since steroid's long term effect is weight gain and fluid retention as well. Its a double ended sword for me but i need it to suppress my flares for now.