25-year battle with lupus leaves woman pleading for help
Published:Monday | February 21, 2022 | 12:06 AMShanna Monteith/Gleaner Writer
Denise Patrick, of East Albion in St Thomas, is trying her best to maintain a positive outlook on life, despite her obvious challenges.
The forty-one year-old woman has been living with lupus for some 25 years.
Lupus is an incurable auto-immune disease which occurs when the immune system becomes hyperactive and mistakenly attacks its own healthy tissues, causing inflammation and damage to various tissues and organs in the body.
Her diagnosis came in 1997 after giving birth to the second of her three children.
“I realised that my feet started to cramp and I wasn’t able to use my hands. I had the butterfly rash on my face, but at the time I didn’t know what it was. Whenever I walked in the sun, my skin would itch. The cramps got so bad that it seemed I couldn’t walk,” Patrick said.
Confused as to what she was experiencing, Patrick said she journeyed to the Yallahs Health Centre to report her symptoms.
She revealed: “They said they can’t handle the situation, so they sent me to the Morant Bay Health Centre and the doctors there admitted that they weren’t familiar with the signs, so I was sent to another centre in Kingston where I did some blood tests. The results didn’t really show anything, so they sent me to the University Hospital (of the West Indies) and after three assessments, I was diagnosed with lupus.”
Patrick told The Gleaner that a general lack of information and proper guidance caused her case to worsen some three years later.
According to her, “They didn’t advise me at the time that pregnancy would make the lupus worse, so when I got pregnant again in 2000, I had a large flare up. My baby was breached and had to be taken at six months. They said it was a 50-50 chance that we would live, but I kept believing that God would come through for me.
She said the flare-up happened after the baby was delivered, an experience which took a toll on her body, revealing large rashes and rapid weight and hair loss.
Her body, according to Patrick, continued to deteriorate over the years, with an eventual stroke in 2016 which has left a lasting impact on her ability to use one of her hands.
LIFE HAS BEEN CHALLENGING
Describing lupus as a sickness of many faces, she noted that life has been challenging, especially in finding ways to finance her medications and lifestyle.
The woman said: “I’m scared to go out and ask for jobs. People look at you and think you have AIDS, cancer and other illnesses. Sometimes you go by the health centre and people stare at you. I try my best to keep up with my medications and sometimes the church will help me, but it’s difficult to be asking people each time you are in need, so I always try my best to do something.”
She told The Gleaner that at times she buys and resells underwear and had also meddled in chicken farming, but has been unable to maintain the businesses.
“Right now I have a blood test to take that costs $11,800 and my medications are the same amount and I can’t afford it. If I’m able to get some assistance to buy chickens to help maintain my medication and tests, I would really appreciate it,” she pleaded.
Sharing the importance of acceptance in dealing with lupus, Patrick, who moved from 300 to 110 pounds over the course of her infirmity, said: “If I should constantly think about what things were like back then and how I looked now, I will literally go mad. I used to have nice shape, nice face and long hair back then, but I don’t try to put it on my mind, I just try to treat my sickness as best as I can and give thanks for life. I see people die because they don’t accept their situation.”
Those wishing to assist may make donations to Denise Patrick’s JN savings account number 2094518789 or by contacting her at 876-879-8810.