Personal Narrative: My Understanding Of Autoimmune Disease

In early November of 2014, I was just 19 years old and could barely move—my life was falling apart. I had never felt so sick and helpless before, and I thought I was going to die. The many doctors’ visits ended me in the hospital that year. I was scared to death; and I did not know what my future would hold. Now, as I take a look in the mirror, I see myself better than before. While this journey has been tough, and I still encounter many challenges of lupus (an autoimmune disease); I am thankful for God’s blessing of having my family and friends by my side during hard times.

I don’t know what I’d do without them, I might not even exist if I didn’t have them at my side. They are my true heroes. Every day they give me food and shelter and when I have a problem, they always do everything they can to help me. My parents are always willing to protect me when there is trouble or danger and will help me with small projects or dilemmas. Sometimes I make them a little frustrated, but that doesn’t stop them from giving me everything that I need. These are the types of heroes that I admire, people that always have you back and are willing to help you, not the superheroes that go around saving cities from disaster. Have you seen a superhero make dinner for somebody? No! Superheroes are too busy flying around and saving the day, while completely ignoring the people who have don’t have essentials, like food and water. Superheroes protect us in life or death situations, but people who care for us are the real reason we are living. I bet superheroes would be more heroic helping a charity or giving to the poor than saving someone from a train wreck because, if parents like mine hadn’t raised people like me, superheroes would have no one to save.

For eighteen years now my parents have influenced me to do my best in academics and extracurricular activities. Both of my parents have gone to college and both have had successful careers. My dad was a highly recognized Police Chief for Waukesha County and is now on the

My parents are my heroes, and they inspire me everyday. Migrating to the US a year before I was born, they traded a comfortable life in Vietnam to work long hours at low wages in America in order to give their children unimaginable opportunities. Growing up, I was not aware of the sacrifices my parents made, but knowledge of them now gives me all the reason to be forever grateful for them and everything they make possible. I can never fully repay my parents, but I can do them right by doing the best with all I have got.

Your support is still needed and those suffering from autoimmune diseases are relying on it!

My parents are number one on my list of 10 important things. Because they give me a place to stay and food to eat. My parents come and support me at my games and come watch my horse stuff even when they don't want too. They care about my education and check my grades often even though I don't like it. My parents know how much I want to go to college and get a good job so they do their best to keep me on track in school. My mom takes me to horse shows and my dad does when my mom can't or he comes with. During the summer they take me around to different shows with the horses to practice for bigger shows. I remember once it was the day before the fair and we were getting ready. We had just taken care of my horse and I put her away. I don't know that where my horse was standing was a hornet's nest. Since my horse was stomping the hornets started

I was first diagnosed with strep, but it was later discovered that I actually had mono. I was sick with mono for about two months and missed a large portion of the semester, which took a lot of perseverance to complete all of my missed work. During the time I was sick, I was incapable of doing most daily activities, so I sat in my bed and read. I read two or three books, but Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was by far the most deep and captivating. My eyes were opened into a new world of literature and I absolutely adored it! It is this very book that helped me survive the miserable days of sickness. Another good thing came out of my sickness is my passion for the field of healthcare! In the time I was sick, I researched immensely about Mononucleosis like my life depended on it. From there, I researched many other illnesses and realized that I relished time spent on learning about all things healthcare. I have found many passions till this point, but I know there are many more to

One of the reasons why my parents decided to come to the United States was so that I and my three siblings could have a better future. Also so we could have more education than my parents had to have a better chance in life and better job opportunities. I admire my parents so much because I have witness every single struggle they have been through trying to give us the best and also because they are humble and strong as a family. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to go to college is because I strive to

Do you feel fatigued even after you get a full night of sleep? Do you have achy muscles and joints, brain fog, inability to concentrate, or insomnia? Do you get rashes, eczema, hives, or skin irritation? Do you have an inability to tolerate cold or heat? Do you get diarrhea, bloating, constipation, or stomach pain? If you answered “yes” to several of these, there’s a good chance you have an autoimmune condition. Many people suffer for years with a vague set of symptoms that look like many other conditions but can’t be clearly defined or put in a box. Today we know this previous gray area actually defines the symptoms that precede or are involved in the process of autoimmunity.

In the end, this theme of struggle between parents and children affects many people's lives. Many of us argue, fight and may have bad relationships with our parents, but they still care and love

One reason why my parents will always be my biggest motivators is because they know what 's right from wrong and they know life. They tell me and always pushed me to do my best no matter what. They told me I 'm going to have a lot of distraction and a lot of things I do not want to go through but, its going to happen, thats just life. In the beginning of Elementary school, I

In the world in which we live, autoimmune disorders are becoming more and more widespread, presenting a new epidemic of life-threatening diseases. They are included on the list of ten most common reasons for mortality in children and women up to 64 years of age ("Autoimmune Statistics - AARDA", 2016). According to the National Institute of Health, the estimated number of people suffering from autoimmune-related diseases in the USA alone exceeds 23 million people, and the number keeps growing from year to year. The exact number of autoimmune disorders is unknown due to the fact that the origin of some diseases is not fully understood. At the moment, scientists distinguish approximately 80 autoimmune-related disorders, all of which are considered incurable. Since the nature of autoimmunity is not fully investigated, no cure has been found for any autoimmune diseases so far. Autoimmune conditions may influence any tissues of the body, including skin (psoriasis), limbs (rheumatoid arthritis), endocrine glands (Hashimoto’s disease, type I diabetes) or digestive organs (celiac disease) ("Autoimmune Statistics - AARDA", 2016). Some of the autoimmune disorders exhibit slow disease course with feeble symptoms, while other disorders are manifested rapidly, imposing an immediate threat to patient’s well-being, and, sometimes, to the patient’s life. Lupus is an example of such dangerous autoimmune disorder.

An immune system disorder causes abnormally low activity or over activity of the immune system. In cases of immune system over activity, the body attacks and damages its own tissues (autoimmune diseases). Immune deficiency diseases decrease the body's ability to fight invaders, causing vulnerability to infections. An autoimmune disease develops when your immune system, which defends your body against disease, decides your healthy cells are foreign. Thus, your immune system attacks healthy cells and depending on the type, an autoimmune disease can affect one or many different types of body tissue. It can also cause abnormal organ growth and changes in organ function. Treatment for autoimmune diseases generally focuses on reducing immune system

The body is a warzone. Microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and parasites are constantly trying to invade the body but the body’s immune system has a multitude of mechanisms to protect against them. The immune system is critical to the body’s proper function by not only protecting against foreign microbes but also establishing self-tolerance, recognition of the body’s normal cells and prevention against full scale attacks against normal cells. When the body’s immune system is unable to determine self from non-self, it begins to attack self-cells thus creating autoimmunity against the body. The causes of autoimmunity and autoimmune diseases are starting to surface and medical techniques are advancing to help the body’s immune system against

Autoimmune disease are on a large scale of their own in the world of illness. Their symptoms range from anything to everything, and many of the very different autoimmune diseases can often have similar symptoms, making it much harder to diagnose. Autoimmune diseases, seeing that there are hundreds that are known and have been identified, affect just about every part of the body that you can imagine. Some of these diseases are genetically dominant genes carried down with each generation continuously, while some of the diseases are recessive genes, meaning that they may be carried down the line but don't activate in each person, or may skip a generation. Autoimmune disease can be very complicated, and a majority of them aren't completely curable,