My story began around the age of 6, I remember my mother combing my hair one morning getting me ready to go somewhere or the other, I remember her passing the comb through my hair and then she stopped got up from the chair she was sitting in and went to my father, I remember her telling him look this is what came out of Tiny (this is my nickname) head. He called me to the living room and stated come over here for a moment, I remember him running his fingers through my hair, he looked at my mother no words were spoken, now I could tell from the expressions on both of their faces something was wrong, my father informed my mother to take me to the doctor as soon as possible. Now me being a child I was not scarred but wondered what was going on, so a couple of days after that my mother took me to see a specialist, I remember his office being above the Salvation Army located in Highland Park, Michigan.
Now I can remember this older man with a white coat on going through my hair, and asking my mother has she been around any type of chemicals and I remember my mother saying no, and asking this man (the doctor) why do you ask, he stated that her scalp has red bumps and some bald patches, he gave her a prescription to get filled and he told her to wash my hair every day and to put what I can remember an ointment on my scalp every night, and to bring me back the next week. Now I remember the weather being warm and I was out side playing when all of I started to feel ill, I went into the house and told my mother that I was not feeling good, she placed the back of her hand across my forehead she stated you feel a little warm, go and lay down on the couch for a while, but a while became all day, I remember my mother asking me how do you feel, and I remember replying I still don’t feel good mama. She looked at my face and stated get up for a minute, she turned my face from side to side, looked at my neck, and arms and stated it looks like you have a heat rash, but little did anyone know that it would turn out to be what is known now as lupus.
No, the physicians did not know at the time is was lupus they had no idea what was going on with me at the time. All I know is that I could no longer go outside and play like every other child, I would have to wait on the sun to go down, then and only then could I go out. This was my beginning of my journey with the chronic illness called Lupus.
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