The understanding of the difference between cancer and lupus remains a constant cause of controversial talk among many who are battling daily. We have to be more mindful in communicating effectively to those who are fighting so hard to simply stay alive.
I heard a woman say to a lupus warrior that cancer is far worse than lupus. Why she would utter those words to someone battling constant pain and struggle day to day is beyond me. What a hurtful and just unthoughtful mean thing to say. She may not have meant it that way, but in a fight for your life that is surely the way it was taken. So, it stirred a thought in me as to the importance of awareness of Lupus and its affect on every part of a person’s life. This is not to compare only to inform and give all an understanding of the seriousness of Lupus.
So let’s start with this, Cancer isn’t forever, although there are some cancers that can be chronic, Lupus is. Cancer can go away, and have a chance of coming back, whereas Lupus will never leave and always return with a vengeance.
Lupus warriors can feel exactly the same as a Cancer patient with the pain and sometimes even worse pain daily for months, for years for a lifetime. So much of the world is focused on Cancer that they forget other chronic illnesses that affect people constantly, and Lupus is one of them.
As a point of information, cancer patients sit in a room just as a lupus patient does dealing with chronic pain, chronic fear, chronic depression, of a hospital room for days, weeks, months. All because of Chemotherapy. Yes lupus warriors are on chemotherapy treatments. In fact, cancer patients are able to do a round of chemotherapy and ring the bell for the successful removal but, as a lupus warrior we can’t. We are forever on chemotherapy and other IV medications to help control an illness that never goes away.
One must understand how similar they are, cancer and lupus, yet the world refuses to give any attention to lupus, or other illnesses. A lot of information about lupus is being left in the dark and people are left to wonder and compare.
Lupus is forever, it will never go away. Not with diet, not with a load of chemotherapy or other IV therapies or surgeries, not with medications forever, it will always stay the same, there residing in the body. See, Lupus only quells for a moment and it starts right back and attacks the warrior again in full force. Cancer leaves, and only has a chance of coming back, there is no guarantee. Lupus causes irreversible long term damage to the body as a whole attacking organs, nerves and skin with significant mortality rates. Lupus as an active disease will quell from time to time, but the lupus warrior will have suffered from symptoms related to the accumulation of chronic damage as they battle the disease.
Let it be known that this information is not meant to be offensive or compare. It is not meant for anyone to feel that one illness is worse than the other, it is not meant to cause an uproar. It is meant for awareness, to see the hurt, and to see the similarities with the two and to forge an understanding of what lupus warriors face daily.
Lupus is a very serious illness and should not be pushed to the side as one that doesn’t affect every aspect of a person’s life. Lupus is real even when you can’t see the effects on a person’s body! A person is not faking it, they are not lazy and it’s not a fad. Lupus is real!
#LupusInColor