My name is Cathy and I am a Lupus Sufferer/fighter/advocate/etc. I am 40 years young and apparantly had Lupus since I was a teen, but didn't know it-or what 'it' was, till I was in my late 20's. To begin to try and explain what living with Lupus is like, I'll start off with one word answers:
Debilitating
Exhausting
Painful
Merciless
Ever-present
Relentless
Depressing
Agonizing
Vicious
WOLF
~~~~~~~
There are many more words I could use for LUPUS-but I want to keep this site even children could view!! lol 
Lupus is not a disease that likes to travel alone. Not by a longshot and I don't know of one single Lupie who ONLY has Lupus! MY partners in my Lupus' crime, are:
Fibromyalgia
Osteoarthritis
APS-Antiphospolipid Antibiodies Syndrome-a blood clotting disorder common in those w/Lupus.
Sjogren's Syndrome
Corneal Erosion Syndrome-thnaks to the severe dry-eye of Sjogrens!
Raynauds Syndrome
Gerd
Hypertension
Heart Arythemia-due to SVT, I had a Cardiac Ablation to correct it in April 2006.
Meralgia Pasesthecia-severe nerve damage in my right leg
Tinnitus-right ear-(a newer problem still trying to find out its origin/cause)
IBS
Unknown-as-of-yet-strange ear disorder in my left ear causing a beating echo sound to every syllable I speak and many times to what other people are saying, even tv/radio does it too now. ENTs are stumped on this one-been on this one for several years now.
Weak Bladder-ya cough-ya pee, ya sneeze...ya pee...ya laugh too hard...yup..ya pee!! lol
Insomnia-crazy huh? With the exhaustion of Lupus and Fibro, you would THINK its easy to sleep a lot! WRONG! lol
Depression
Anxiety Attacks
(who wouldn't have the above 2 what with all the rest going on!!??) lmao
Cognitive function problems
and there's various other problems, I must be forgetting thanks to the last one above!
My current list of meds are:
Plaquenil 200 mgs 2x a day
Etdolac-Lodine 500 mgs 2 xs a day
Cardizem 240 mgs 1x a day
Elavil 25 mgs 1x a day
Elavil 50 mgs 1x a day
Xanax 0.25 mgs 2xs a day-for Anxiety/anxiety attacks
Flexeril 10 mgs I only take half 1 x a day(5 mgs) due to 10 mgs knocking me out! -Just taken off this one yesterday.
Ultracet for the pain of OA and Lupus, etc
Ecotrin-81 mgs 1 x a day for the APS- to thin my blood.
Prevacid for GERD-don't know the mgs yet-new RX is being filled now.
Ambien CR(just started on yesterday 04-20-07
Lupus entails so very much and wreaks havok upon those it claims. Its a 'systemic disorder' meaning it can affect anything system-wise and usually does.
I will post all kinds of educational info on this site, as well as daily life stuff and a blog/diary of what's going on with me and Lupus, which right now-there is a lot happening and I just spent 3 days last week in the hospital. but I'll get to that later. lol
A bit more on who I am...besides a just a 'Lupie'. Like I said, I am 40 years young, married to my dear hubby, Chuck, for, well, it'll be 24 years tomorrow-the 22'nd of April!! 
We have 4 beautiful children-Matt-23, Josh-21, Zach-17 1/2, Sarah-13 and a beautiful Grand daughter-Alyssa-who is 4 1/2.
I live in NJ and have all my life-yuk. lol My dream is to one day, move to Lancaster County, PA.-Amish Country-which is my FAV place to be in the world!!! We go there fairly often.
Besides Lupus et all being a big part of me...there are many things I enjoy-reading-esp Christian historical novels, like Beverly Lewis, Traci Peterson, Janette Oke, etc. I LOVE writing poetry-though its hard right now due to worsening cognitive functions-(its very hard to type all this right now, but i want to get my story told, so I'm taking it slow so there aren't too many typos! lol)... I love- U.S. Civil War history, Native American history/culture, Amish/Mennonite culture-and have many friends among them as well---creating earrings and dream catchers-though as of late both are too painful to manage to do. I love freebies and even built and run my own freebie site, called Country Roads freebies & Fun-(I'll put the link in this site somewhere.) and have been at it for years now-its very addiciting!!! free stuff is great!! lol I am also a survey-taker and make some good money taking online surveys, interactives and product tests...its also great fun! I also love playing games on POGO, am currently hooked on playing SIMS, Life Stories on my comp-lol. I love visiting T.O.S.P(The Official Soul Patrol-yes i AM a proud Soul Patroller and love Taylor Hicks!!) lol Speaking of music...my FAV music is Country Music and my fav singers are: Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, the late-great Chris LeDoux, as well as: Montgomery Gentry, Gretchen Wilson, Carrie Underwood, Big & Rich, Diamond Rio, Martina McBride, Gary Allen, Aaron Tipon, and oh, so many more. lol I also love the Christian band-Mercy Me! I just love music!
I also spend time online researching all my health problems, which my Rheumy(rheumatologist) encourages-which is great because many docs don't like their patients becoming quite versed in their own health issues!!! lol I belong to several Lupus website-support groups and even have my own called 'the Butterfly & The Wolf' which basically right now is a dead site because no one but me goes there. lol I've thought of shutting it down-but the thought that there ARE people out there-and I know this because of site activity logs- that DO go there to read the info about Lupus etc...so at least it might be of benefit to seakers of info.
So, I think that's the gist of it and will add more in this section as they come to me! lol Now, its time to work on other sections of this site. :)
*HUGS*
Cathy