Grandmother

Autoimmune diseases run in families. Not necessarily the same autoimmune disease- rather, a propensity for a autoimmune disease.

My grandmother had lupus & probably scleroderma. She lived on a farm with her husband, and raised 4 children.

She died before I was born, so I only know what my mother has told me.

My grandmother also had joint pains and fatigue. My mother would stay home from school to help her out. My mother wasn't too happy with that as a kid, but... dealing with her own mother was an experience that proved invaluable to me her daughter; My mother was a family member who had known someone else with an invisible and difficult illness. Sometimes I would be in denial, and she would still be looking for answers. While it was I that needed the will to do the research- it was she that lent me needed support.

My mother tells me that her mother wasn't really nice in her later years. I imagine the pain, fatigue, and stress, can have that effect on a person. She was diagnosed with lupus, but my mother seems to remember that Scleroderma was added on later, due to a thickening/shiny skin symptom my grandmother was having.

My grandmother was diagnosed, this I know. But how long did it take her to get diagnosed? It also doesn't sound like they were able to afford much medical care for her. Did she get any help? What treatments were even available?

I have seen a couple photos on my grandmother. She looks like me. Skinnier, but similar facial structure, dark hair. I sometimes think about her, and how difficult things must have been for her.

Note: I have Hashimoto's, not lupus, but also have some aches and pains.