Lupus is said to be a great imitator – the symptoms of lupus could often be mistaken to be symptoms of other illnesses like blood disorders, diabetes, heart disease, kidney, bone, or lung disease. Hence why it has become even more important to be aware of this invisible underlying autoimmune condition that you could be totally neglecting and only treating symptoms of other illnesses.
No two people have the exact signs or symptoms, but most lupus patients have these symptoms in common:
- Fatigue – it is very important to recognize that a lupus fatigue is very different from a healthy person feeling tired.
- Butterfly shaped rash – many but not all lupus patients have this red rash on their cheeks and over the bridge of the nose. Lupus patients can have this red rash on their face, neck, chest or on other parts of their body as well. An interesting fact, it is this butterfly rash, that you can actually see, is said to be “one of the most visible symptoms of lupus”, that’s why butterfly is used as a symbol for lupus, a symbol for hope for lupus patients and lupus is denoted with purple colour. While the symbol for lupus is a butterfly, the word lupus itself a Latin word for ‘wolf’ and it was used to describe the erosive facial lesions that were similar of a wolf’s bite which were later referred to as discoid lupus. I guess back then anyone who survived a wolf’s bite would have been a real warrior, hence why lupus suffers are often called lupus warriors. Fascinating and equally confusing combination of a wolf and a butterfly to represent lupus.
- Joint pain, stiffness, and swelling – these were the first indicator for me in 2007.
- Anaemia – which is low count of red blood cells. Lupus is common in women and so is anaemia.
- Abnormal blood clotting is another sign – I experience that all the time. I usually find unexplained dark patches on my legs, highs, hands and it often looks like a bruise, but I can never recall getting injured.
- Hair loss – I have is thin, brittle hair, and lots of hair fall. Lupus damages hair follicles that causes hair to fall out and it can also be a side effect of lupus medication. For some lupus patients, they can get lupus flare on their head which could lead to alopecia – that is the total loss of hair (at one stage I had also ended up losing all my hair and I will give you more information on that in my upcoming videos, so keep watching).
- Other symptoms include having fever, skin lesions, fingers and toes turning white or blue when exposed to cold (Raynaud’s disease), shortness of breath, chest pain, mouth ulcers, dry eyes, blurry vision, could experience confusion, memory loss, weight fluctuation, depression, sun or just in general light sensitivity and so on.
Just like the causes of lupus, the symptoms of lupus are also quite broad. I would say, you know yourself, you know your body, if you are experiencing something unusual in your body for a prolong period of time and there is no good explanation for it, then I suggest you be proactive and see your GP.