Special Lupus Awareness Issue May 2017 | Page 37

What would you like people to know about Lupus sufferers? That they make it hard for us when they don’t try to understand. It’s hard to be sick when people keep thinking you can just take a nap and get over it, when they believe you’re faking and your whole body aches, when you look so well, like are you sure you’re really suffering from a chronic disease? You feel so much guilt over always cancelling plans, being unable to participate, over disappointing people, you just fake being well. Sometimes I say I’m ok, when in actuality I’m going to jump into bed the minute I am alone. When sometimes I get tired just thinking about the energy I need to take a bath, and I worry about falling asleep in the bath. Sometimes I spend all morning trying to talk myself into getting out of bed, but it’s so exhausting, I just don’t bother. I wish people understood how exhausting and painful lupus really is.