Nothing fancy - just a simple slimline from a nice piece of BOW for a member of our church who heads up several of our outreach programs.
My wife was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome about 4 months ago. It's an autoimmune disease, similar in some ways to Lupus & RA, but not as debilitating. It primarily attacks the body's moisture producing glands, so dry eye, dry mouth & dry skin are common symptoms. My wife has all 3 and some of them were getting rather severe by the time we got a good diagnosis.
Although there is no cure, fortunately it's a very manageable disease. There are pills for dry mouth, drops & compress treatments for dry eye, and creams for dry skin. There are also dietary considerations that help & fortunately for her, she was already living that way, so no lifestyle changes in that regard.
Her medications & treatments are 2 and 3 times a day plus the thyroid & blood pressure medications she was already on. I made her a weekly spreadsheet chart so she can check off & note the times when she takes each medication or treatment which has been a big help in keeping track of things.
Her symptoms have stabilized pretty well but she will probably have to continue this regimen the rest of her life. The most difficult thing to manage is fatigue & lack of stamina which is another common symptom. Some days she can barely get out of bed, fortunately that's not too often, but very frustrating for her when she has those days.
Whenever I'm home from work, I've just been hanging around the house to give her encouragement & moral support, help with the household chores, fix some of her meals, etc. As a result, I haven't even been out to my shop in ; months and I haven't been very active here on IAP.
Now that she's doing a little better & settled into her regimen pretty well, I hope to be able to do a little more turning, but it'll be a while before I'm able to do as much as I used to.
Edgar
My wife was diagnosed with Sjogren's Syndrome about 4 months ago. It's an autoimmune disease, similar in some ways to Lupus & RA, but not as debilitating. It primarily attacks the body's moisture producing glands, so dry eye, dry mouth & dry skin are common symptoms. My wife has all 3 and some of them were getting rather severe by the time we got a good diagnosis.
Although there is no cure, fortunately it's a very manageable disease. There are pills for dry mouth, drops & compress treatments for dry eye, and creams for dry skin. There are also dietary considerations that help & fortunately for her, she was already living that way, so no lifestyle changes in that regard.
Her medications & treatments are 2 and 3 times a day plus the thyroid & blood pressure medications she was already on. I made her a weekly spreadsheet chart so she can check off & note the times when she takes each medication or treatment which has been a big help in keeping track of things.
Her symptoms have stabilized pretty well but she will probably have to continue this regimen the rest of her life. The most difficult thing to manage is fatigue & lack of stamina which is another common symptom. Some days she can barely get out of bed, fortunately that's not too often, but very frustrating for her when she has those days.
Whenever I'm home from work, I've just been hanging around the house to give her encouragement & moral support, help with the household chores, fix some of her meals, etc. As a result, I haven't even been out to my shop in ; months and I haven't been very active here on IAP.
Now that she's doing a little better & settled into her regimen pretty well, I hope to be able to do a little more turning, but it'll be a while before I'm able to do as much as I used to.
Edgar
