Near-Death Lupus Flare Up- Artemis' Recovery

My journey towards optimal health has been an excruciating one.

I have been unwell since I was a child, enduring deep, long-lasting chronic pain and a multitude of mysterious symptoms that continued to develop and last the course of years.

I have attempted to work with the medical system, in the hopes of finding concrete answers, my entire life. However, unfortunately, I have been met with discrimination, prejudice, and dismissal by countless healthcare professionals, including my own general practitioner time and time again for over 2 decades. Even though I was not receiving adequate medical care or attention, my bodily symptoms continued to increase greatly over the course of many years.

By the spring of this year, I was experiencing the following:

-extreme body pain and inflammation in every joint to the point where I was unable to walk or even close my own fist or grasp anything with my own two hands

-chronic bodily fatigue / weakness to the point of being unable to lift my limbs or even stand on my own two feet (I had extremely limited range of motion)

-constant fever and chills

-complete loss of appetite and inability to eat do to throat pain (I lost over thirty pounds in the course of two months)

-constant nausea and vomiting (there were days when I would vomit around ten times and be completely unable to keep any food down)

-heart palpitations, chest pain, extreme heart rate

-chest pain, restricted breathing and wheezing over the slightest movements as a result of fluid found in my lungs

-high-level pains surrounding my torso that prevented me from being able to walk or lay down without extreme discomfort

-shakiness, grey skin, lack of colour in my face

-daily loss of hair

Needless to say, as I laid in bed every day, all day, in immense pain and a lack of control, my mental and physical health was in a dangerous place. I was completely isolated from the surrounding world, and unable to work since April 2023. My financial situation has been negatively impacted ever since.

On August 4th, things became very serious. My heart rate, chest palpitations, and severe chest pain reached emergency levels. We then had to rush to the emergency ward. I was hospitalized for three weeks, undergoing multiple tests, scans and x-rays, and taking 10 + different intense medications. After all of these tests, I was officially diagnosed with Lupus, an auto-immune disease. I required the one-on-one attention of nurses and doctors because I was extremely immobile and physically dependent on a caregiver to complete any minor task. I was being bathed, clothed, and fed by family members, friends, and my partner.

The undiagnosed Lupus had attacked my entire body, which is why I had felt so critically ill for so long. In addition to the full body inflammation, it had caused a liver failure, a kidney infection, lung damage and fluid in my lungs (restricted and painful breathing daily), thrush in my nose, throat and esophagus, stomach ulcers and damage in the stomach lining, fluid retention all over the body, pericarditis (inflammation and fluid within the lining of the heart), skin irritations, and cognitive decline as a result of attacking my brain. I was also diagnosed with E. coli colitis in the hospital. All of these conditions left me in extreme pain, discomfort, irritability, and hopelessness.

Near the end of August I was released from the hospital. For the following two weeks, I received at home medical care from a care aid on a daily basis because I still required one on one attention to carry out the simplest of personal hygiene tasks. In addition to the care aid's assistance, my partner was assisting me daily with bathing, dressing, medication intake, bed-making, and the preparation of all of my meals. On a daily basis, my partner had to assist me with lifting and moving my body as well as helping me walk from one place to another in our home. In addition to all of the taxing responsibilities, my partner was and still is working over 50 hours a week to compensate for my greatly reduced income.

I have not worked since April of this year. The doctors predict I will be unable to work for another six months to a year because the various medications I am taking need that amount of time to take full effect. My symptoms need to decrease far more before I am able to commence working. Currently, I am on over ten different types of intense medications, all costing me over $400 a month. Furthermore, I require the regular services of a chiropractor, physiotherapist, massage therapist, and naturopath to manage Lupus properly. In my critical condition, I should be having these kinds of appointments every week to supplement the benefits of my medications. However, I presently receive them very sporadically and infrequently because I cannot afford to pay for regular service and I currently have no medical coverage. Therefore, my healing has been extremely slow, painful, and full of ever-evolving, complicated side effects.

I am in the middle of applying for a Person's With Disability application. It is a long and difficult process, dependent on the support of health care professionals and an overwhelmed, slow-moving health care system. I do not know when this application will finally be accepted and therefore when I will receive the sufficient financial compensation. At the present moment, I am on Medical Employment Insurance. I will have this support for one more month. It is barely covering home rent and only a tiny fraction of my medical expenses. As a result, my partner has continued to take on a burdensome work amount (while still continuing to provide care to me in our home), in the attempts of covering all of our rent costs, various bills, and medical expenses during this period. Our financial situation has become dire.

I am extremely grateful to be alive. I had lost hope this last spring and was concerned I would quickly fall to my demise. I am forever grateful to have come this far and to have eliminated some of my past symptoms and to have more control over the existing ones. However, it is going to be a long, non-linear, road towards optimal health. One of my largest obstacles right now is financial despair.

I am very frightened that I will not be able to sustain myself over the next year properly. If I cannot afford to pay for my lengthy medication list as well as regular visits to supplementary health care providers, my health levels and life quality will steadily decline. If Lupus remains untreated or improperly treated, I could become bedridden once again with immobility and pain, with a lifespan of tentatively 15 more years. However, with consistent and proper treatment, I have the potential to live a happy and vibrant life, full of my aspirations and goals. I am 29 years old. Even though I spent my last birthday this summer in bed, unable to physically move, I had the love and support of friends and family around me. I now require the support of the surrounding community.

Your financial support can help cover my mounting medical expenses to ensure I receive adequate care during this critical time. Your contribution, no matter how little or large, will make an incredible difference in my fight for survival. I have a lot of future ahead of me and I want to fully embrace it. Life is precious.

We are aiming to fundraise around 20,000.

10,000 would go to the costs of medication over the next number of years and the other 10,000 to cover the services of naturopathy, chiropractor, physiotherapists, and massage therapists, and other arising medical costs over the next number of years.

I would deeply appreciate any and all help that the community could offer.