I began having symptoms of fatigue, dry mouth, dry eyes, severe heartburn, a facial skin rash and painful joints at around age 49.  The symptoms did not appear all at once, but rather tended to occur one at a time, and they would come and go and vary in intensity and severity.   At first, I tended to ignore them.  After all, I WAS getting older.  Don’t strange things happen to the body as we age?   I rationalized that perhaps I had just "overdone it” upon occasion and hadn’t realized it.   I was spending much of my time caring for my mother who had terminal cancer and I didn’t have time to be sick myself.  I put things on the back burner and hoped that they would go away.

     But the symptoms did not go away.  In fact, they slowly became more pronounced.  At one point, my joints ached so bad that I couldn’t shift my car with my right hand alone and I had to reach across and also use my left hand.  Even then, the pain was excruciating.  My mouth was so dry that I could hardly talk when reading to the children at Sunday school.  My eyes felt scratchy, like someone had thrown sand in them.  The fatigue had become so bad that I now realized just how much time I was spending in bed.  Many days I did not even get dressed.  Something was definitely wrong!

      As each symptom would crop up, I would see a doctor to be evaluated.  All together I saw a dermatologist, a family physician, a dentist, an oral surgeon, a chiropractor, a massage therapist, a gynecologist and urologist.  No one was putting all the symptoms together into a bigger picture until I mentioned to the dermatologist that I had very dry eyes and mouth.  He said that women often become drier as they get older, but that I could have something called Sjogren’s syndrome and that it would be worth checking out.

      I returned to my family doctors office and related what the dermatologist had said.  After performing some blood work, my ANA test came back positive.   I was referred to a rheumatologist.  After carefully listening to my history, performing a thorough examination, and making note of the fact that at that time I also had Raynaud’s phenomenon (vessels in fingers and toes clamp off during cold weather, and this often accompanies Sjogren’s), she sent me across the street to the hospital for a whole battery of blood tests plus a chest x-ray.  It certainly helps to have insurance, because these were very specific but very expensive tests!   I was also sent to an ophthalmologist to examine my eyes and to have what is called a Schirmer’s test to see how much moisture my eyes produce.  This turned out to be abnormally low.

      After all the results were in, I returned to see the rheumatologist and she told me that I had Sjogren’s syndrome.  I had what is called “primary Sjogren’s” (meaning it’s not related to another condition) and that it was treatable with Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquin), an anti-malarial drug. She also prescribed Evoxac (civimeline) to relieve the dry mouth, and these capsules work beautifully.  I would have to take these medications for the rest of my life, however.

      It wasn’t long after treatment began that I began to feel much better than I had in a long, long time.  I could do light exercise and walk again.  I could do housework again.  I hadn’t realized how insidious the onset of this disease had been until I was treated and suddenly began to feel so much better.  Thank goodness, I had finally found a doctor who knew what to look for and could put all the symptoms together to make the diagnosis.

Story Copyright © 2007 Kim

Page Design Copyright © 2007 Lynne Messina

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