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« on: May 22, 2007, 10:52:05 am » |
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Margaret Goldsmith, wife of former Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, is a very private person and was known for shying away from the media. But she's speaking out, for the first time, about living with Lupus and she has a warning for women who have the disease.
They say that Lupus causes the body to attack itself.
"I call it the stupid disease," Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith recalled when she was first diagnosed.
"It was really quite scary. I was 20-some years old. And I thought, hmmm. Lupus?" she said. "I had headaches, I had joint pain, I had fatigue. And so everyone's tired after you have a baby.
"Everybody has joint pain," she said. "Of course you have a headache. You have children, you have a husband. You have a job. But it was different."
Lupus greatly interrupted the normalcy of her life.
"There was no normal day, Karen. Even when the headaches would start, they could be an hour; they could be three days of headaches. You could be tired for two hours; you could be tired for two months."
Fatigue, headaches and joint pain made campaigning for her husband difficult.
"It was terrible pain. And I know, when people shook my hand, they would catch my expression," she said. "And I just couldn't take it. And I would just have to do this."
"Unless you're in the hospital and you're really sick, you can kind of go through your day-to-day life and no one looks at you as being ill. That's the hard part," Goldsmith said.
Lupus eventually led to cancer for Goldsmith.
"That was a shock for me," she said.
She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
"My diagnosis at Stage 4 was a death sentence. There's no cure," Goldsmith said. "My doctor said, 'Oh. You have Lupus.' He was reading through my chart. And he said, 'You know, there's a link between Lupus and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And you could have blown me out of that chair."
Goldsmith was lucky. A successful bone marrow transplant, and the love of her family, gave her her life back.
"I'm a woman of faith too," she said. "My marriage is stronger. My relationship with my kids."
It has now become very important for Goldsmith to make women aware.
"It's wildly important for me to tell people who have Lupus they had better start looking for the cancer. Because, if you find it early, and if you have it and you find it early, you do not have to go through what I went through."
Margaret Goldsmith does not know what caused her Lupus. Researchers are still examining the mysteries of the disease that affects women five times more than men. But an Indiana State University professor may have found a link between Lupus and a chemical commonly found in cosmetics and personal care product
SOURCE: Google www.LupusMCTD.com
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« Last Edit: February 17, 2009, 10:53:49 am by Adminஐﻬ »
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I look normal, as I have an "Invisible Illness". You can not catch it, you can not see it. It's called Lupus.My body is attacking itself on the inside. www.LupusMCTD.com Represents: 1) We are patients helping researchers build a future for the lives of others... 2) Where HOPE is a WORK In Progress 3) Pay It Forward~Giving Back To The Future Lupus/MCTD Patients
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