For the first several months of my mysterious illness, I took down almost every mirror in the house, repelled by my own reflection. Lupus remains a shadowy illness, vampiric in its predation of nearly every bodily system and organ — skin, heart, kidneys, lungs, liver and brain. Nine out of 10 people with lupus are women, and it disproportionately affects women of color. My son, the vampire for Halloween, recently told me we are both vampires, cowering from the sun, only my cape is invisible. Jennifer lives in Ithaca, New York, where she is writing a memoir on grief, illness, and Virginia Woolf.

Source: Huffington Post May 04, 2024 03:32 UTC