Tag: lupus

does rose have rosacea?

So, as I like to say, the hits just keep on coming.

I get used to a certain amount of pummeling on my body and, bam, here comes a left hook that sends my head spinning.

About four months ago, I started experiencing pimples on my brows and forehead. I had thought I wasn’t washing my brows well enough. Since they are getting sparse and gray, when they have no pencil on them, I look a sight. So, I would sometimes not wash all of my brow pencil off. at night before bed. Well, after I stepped up my hygiene routine, I saw some improvement, of course, and felt like needing to wash more thoroughly was all that it was.

But the pimples were also along my hairline. Then they started on my nose, and from there, I developed what I thought were psoriasis plaques below the corners of my mouth, followed by the right side of my mouth. The skin on my nose would sometimes peel because at times I would put acne treatment on it. So, I stopped that. But even without the acne care, I still was noticing some peeling.

I notified the pharmacy that dispenses my biosimilar for my RA so they can put this in their files. I was pretty certain this biosimilar, a drug that is similar to but not the exact same as the brand-name drug I was taking, was the cause.

I also informed my rheumatologist at last week’s appointment. She did a quick glance and said it looks like rosacea. I told her I’d never had that before, just acne in my teens and twenties (and thirties . . . ).

I had an appointment with my dermatologist for today, but yesterday, I had canceled it, thinking I needed to get some work done and that my skin was actually clearing up. Then just this afternoon, I started noticing red skin, not just pimples, but flushed skin, on the right side of my mouth, starting just under my nose. This is definitely something new.

I did a little research on it, and it most definitely could be rosacea. I learned today that the autoimmune pathways that trigger RA also trigger rosacea. My niece has a bad case of it, so I will let her know. Her uncle on her mother’s side has RA, and her aunt on her father’s side (yep, that’s me) also has it. Her younger sister is starting to get aches and pains, migraines, too, and I warned her to get tested when it gets bad.

Back to the rash: Since it is similar to a malar rash, I’m now wondering if it could be lupus. If you have one autoimmune condition, you’re very likely to get another. I was recently (maybe within the past year or just before that) retested for some of the blood markers for other autoimmune diseases, and lupus did not come up. But I still wonder . . .

I just went onto the web portal for my medical group and reinstated my appointment. It’s now for August, but so was my last one; the group has a very active wait list, and I will be informed when an opening pops up. I will take the very next appointment.

I’m finding that when you have a disorder like RA, you are never in the clear. There are so many new symptoms that can arise that you never would have thought had a connection to the disease, like rosacea and the spinal stenosis and hypertrophy I just learned I had in my cervical spine.

If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

i’m becoming a glutton for gluten-free

gluten free

 

Since discovering I tested positive for an autoimmune disease in December, I have gone the way of the gluten-free diet.

The rheumatologist I visited thinks this is a fad diet, but research is on my side in that gluten can trigger autoimmune reactions whereby healthy cells are confused for non-healthy cells and their nuclei are attacked by our own immune systems. It’s been proven in the case of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that manifests in the small intestines. It has also been proven in certain forms of dermatitis, such as dermatitis herpetiformis (DH),  that, according to Providence Hospital in Oregon and Washington, “is a form of celiac disease that triggers the immune system to attack the skin, rather than the small intestine. . . . If people with DH continue to eat gluten, they also may run an increased risk of developing intestinal cancer.”

If this is true with celiac and its forms, why wouldn’t it be true with lupus, which can cause a rash, balding, and even organ failure; scleroderma and connective tissue diseases, which affect the skin, including  the linings of organs, as well as joints; and inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS) that attacks the lining of the intestines, for example?

To me it makes sense. It makes sense to my neurologist too, who is an innovator in vertigo and has landed on many best-doctors lists.

What to Eat?

So here I am, now buying gluten-free pasta, breads, soy sauce, pancake mix, and even Girl Scout cookies. I’m staying away from sugar as much as possible too, so sweets are just occasional treats. If I have a chip, it’s made of corn, like tortilla chips, or I reach for my favorite snack, popcorn, instead. My cholesterol was a bit up, too, recently, so off the table goes the greasy stuff, like potato chips and fries, as well as red meat and other culprits. Any diet takes discipline, but you don’t have to hit me over the head to get me to change if it means living a less-painful, longer, happier life.

What have I noticed since the new diet started? My waistline has gone down, my migraines have decreased a lot (I’ve had one in four weeks!), and my grocery bill has gone up some. Plus, I’m finding foods in areas of the grocery store I’ve never ventured in before.

Food is fuel, period. We forget that at times. It needs to give us energy and keep our bodies functioning properly. Yes, I love food as much as the next guy. I’m a decent cook and I make a lot of different dishes, from cashew chicken to spaghetti and meatballs to yellow curry and basmati rice. Some I’ve had to eliminate, but most I simply have had to modify, like using gluten-free pasta (Barilla makes a great one that’s readily available in major grocery chains; and there’s another brand, Ancient Harvest, that uses corn and quinoa, which doesn’t hold up as well or look like wheat spaghetti when cooked, but has a delicious sweet and nutty flavor).

Take note: There are lots of good-tasting foods one can eat that don’t involve wheat products or wheat-like products at all, although you wouldn’t know this if you subsisted on the regular fast-food diet. Wheat is cheap, and that’s why McDonald’s and Burger King can sell a hamburger for about a buck. But there are alternatives. Rice flour is very close to wheat flour in consistency. I use it now to coat fried chicken, which I make with olive and avocado oils with maybe a bit of corn oil to make it stretch.

I am fortunate to have a couple grocers nearby that stock plenty of options when I am craving a slice of bread. Just this morning for breakfast I had Udi’s cinnamon raisin bread that tasted very close to the real thing, if, that is, wheat is considered “real” and everything else is not, which we’ve been led to believe all these years.

Yes, a lot of these products cost more, Cream of Rice, for example, instead of Cream of Wheat, but if your health isn’t worth it, what is?