Possibly a Flare?

I've been thinking this last week that I'm possibly having a little bit of a lupus flare.

Why? Because my energy level has dropped and I have a bit of a rash on both arms, turning into pitachea (sp?) that I had years ago when I was really really sick with lupus. Before I got on meds, before I was diagnosed, I had these weird little red spots pop up on my arms. After I got diagnosed, my doctor said that was pitachea, little blood vessels near the skin breaking and forming red spots on my skin.

My left arm definitely has the spots, still. My right arm was a bit different, in that it had a scaly patch of skin on my upper arm that I scratched until it bled -- unfortunately. Then I got some little red dots.

I don't recall having the scaly patches of skin before. But each person's dealings with lupus are so different, it's not unusual that I'd now be experiencing something new.

And if those are the only signs of a flare, that's okay with me. It could be a lot worse. It HAS been a lot worse.

So I fortunately have a rheumatologist's appointment on Monday afternoon. The lab work that I did on Friday may or may not show some kind of flare. I've been around this disease long enough to know that lab work doesn't necessarily show anything. I may have had a hit and run thing that disappeared before I got the blood drawn. And it may not even be a flare, after all.

We'll see. I'm just glad that I'm feeling a bit better now, and will certainly feel better after seeing my doctor and finding out if there's any truth to what I'm thinking.

And what to do about it, if it is a flare. It's been so long since lupus has been active, I don't remember how we treated a flare.

And that's a good thing.

Wishing everybody with lupus a pain-free day and a steady path toward recovery.

<Lupus