sleeping/no energy

[Juju44]

Does this happen to anyone?
I feel like I am getting a bug, then bam hit it no energy, tad of a upset stomach, need to sleep all the time. The first night was terrible joint pain in every single joint..but no fever, or cold symptoms. I spent 3 days sleeping barley doing anything. Then last night in a fitful sleep something 'broke' I sweated and drenched myself. I still need another long nap but feel like my energy is returning and my thinking is clearning.
I have mild lupus.
I need to share this with someone since no one I know understands me since I lokk very healthy.

[MichelleAnn]

Hello,
sounds like the beginning of a flareup, I get tremors of hands also...alot how I start for a week or so before other things happen and it gets severe.....seems to slowly build until I feel quite horrible. But then sometimes I feel like that when I over do things and it takes me a week to recover.......maybe call your Rheum. doctor and let him/her know. My doctor told me to tell her immediately, not wait, I usually wait a week or so then call her, she increases my Prednisone to 60mg and tapers me down to 10mg again, if it does not work she repeats it. She hates to keep on high dose for long term. She also repeats blood work at almost every flareup, when I call her early, my blood work usually does not have time to get elevated yet. I hope you feel better soon.
M

[Clare.T]

Welcome to the forum

It's often hard to tell if one is ill with an infection or starting a flare even for a doctor.
What to do and when depends on how available your doctors are.

I don't know where you live but there are lots of rather nasty bugs going around in the UK.
Feeling worn out and chilled is a sign for me of an infection brewing.

Take care of yourself for a few days to see if you feel better or what develops.

I hope it will soon pass though

Bye for now

Clare

[Juju44]

thanks.
It must be my lupus not a bug. So I called my doc. I rarely have this happen, maybe once a year. But I feel like I loose a week of my life.
Why the predisone? What does it do? I have only been on that for asthma.
Thanks for your replies.

[Maia]

If it's lupus, the prednisone will depress the immune system and prevent it from further attack. But if it's a viral infection, the prednisone will make it more difficult for you to recover from.

About the only way I know for sure if something is a viral infection or a lupus flare is if my husband or daughter also get sick in the same way. For me, what you just described sounds a lot like the Norwalk virus that's going around except you didn't get the fever. WIth that... You're nauseas and might vomit one or two times, joints ache especially the back, will run a fever of 102 or so. will get the chills. And you spend 95% of your life in bed those 2 days or so!

Whenever my fever goes above 100.5, it's usually either a bacterial or viral infection. If I get the chills then it's usually an infection and not the lupus. That's the criteria I usually use to make the determination.

Hope you continue to improve from whatever this illness is, and would hesitate to take the pred if you're already improving.

[Raglet]

hi there

If I have no clues as to whether it is viral or lupus, then I have blood tests done. Things like wbc usually show whether it is lupus (low) or infection (high), and can be done very quickly.

With me, if it is lupus I tend to be having my other lupus symptoms as well (for me that is cns symptoms) as lupus is a systemic illness.

So, if it is hanging around, I would really recommend having some bloods done. I have a regulars form, so I can just go and get my bloods done whenever I need to. Otften I will email my doc to let him know what my symptoms are when I have the tests done, then he has a 'picture' to use to interpret the results

hth, and feel better soon

raglet