Hello Blogosphere

I confess myself to be utterly unpracticed in the rules n' tools of blogging (I just made that phrase up). I read a couple blogs...I keep a journal...But I was sitting on my big, fat (useful) creative writing major and thinking, and my thoughts came out something along the lines of "Dude, I'm bored, start a blog already."

I dislike blogs that act as journals. If I wanted you to see my whiny side, if you needed to appreciate how dramatic and hormonal I can be, I would hand you my Cat in the Hat diary (made from an old library book; feel free to be jealous) and let you go to town with it. To air my personal trouble across the "tweet-scape" (Jon Stewart) would be, what's the word...obnoxious? Uncalled for? Boring? So I fell to thinking, in my usual eloquent way, "durrr...but what would I blog about? The internship I have this summer publishing children's literary magazines? My really exciting chronic illness? My slightly unhealthy obsession with the 18th century? My writing? My dorky love of birds?" For sure, my inability to choose a headline for this blog was what delayed this blog's existence for so long. It was solved, as so many things are, with a pun. Oh, the puns. So, since my internship is in the Loop, and I have Lupus, and...and the 18th century is Loopy, and birds...birds fly in loops? Okay, the idea runs out there. Those first three are probably going to take the lead in my blogging, at least until I go back to school. Because I also tend to dislike the idea of talking about my writing on the "tweet-scape," because I feel that that will just lead to excerpts and there's nothing more annoying than excerpts unless, of course, something is being published (oh, the hopes, the dreams, the delusions) and then I would be all "doesn't this sound fantastic you should buy it here's an obnoxious excerpt." ("my friend wrote a book and all I got was this lousy excerpt"? Pause for groan.)

I have a tendency to ramble.

Now, I have been sitting in front of this computer for about 5 minutes trying to think of a decent segue from "well, here's what I guess I'll talk about" to "blah blah blah talking about it." I have failed, and you have my most sincere apologies. Since I am at least mildly using this space as a way to spread awareness (I hate that phrase, but I'm having trouble coming up with a better one. It's just that spread seems to imply a gooey and spreadable substance and I don't want y'all to have to shower post-blog) about lupus I will give you a brief overview because "In a nationwide poll of 1,000 adults conducted for the LFA, 38% said they are somewhat or very familiar with lupus, while 39% have only heard of the name of the disease and 22% have never heard of lupus" and "While 65% of respondents to this survey claimed awareness of lupus, only 20% could correctly answer basic questions about the disease." (Information off Lupus.org). I'm just sayin', don't think I'm insulting your intelligence or anything by teaching at you for a moment. A brief moment. You'll hardly notice it happening.

First off, a lot of people who know someone with lupus but do not know about the disease think that lupus attacks the immune system, because you'll have noticed your aunt (when I tell people I have lupus, somehow they always respond "wow, I'm sorry, my aunt has that...") is sick all the time. In fact, lupus is an attackING immune system. Now, I'm no immunologist (Hi. Creative writing major.) so I cannot tell you much about the why's and the how's, and I gather that neither can the immunologists. The immune system gets confused and a civil war breaks out: body's own immune system vs. body's own muscle tissue. In my case, I was diagnosed when I was 9, which is quite young, and I had what my doctor called "galloping lupus" for years n' years. Most visible symptoms: a 'butterfly rash' on my face, swollen (really swollen) fingers, and a general inability to move with anything like agility. Invisible symptoms: soul-crushing fatigue and slow kidney failure.

I'm bored of this description now, but should probably add the explanation of the paradox: Hulk immune system and always sick? They treat lupus using immunosuppressents which means that while I'm on meds I do not have an immune system, and, therefore, the immune system can't attack me. Good plan, except for my freshman year of college I contracted 3 sinus infections and pneumonia. To wrap this up (seriously, I'm bored.) when I was 15, out of sheer desperation, they shoved me on this chemotherapy called Rituxumab which is really for b-cell lymphoma. It wiped out all my b-cells and herded the galloping lupus into a, uh, pasture or something.

Moving on, and I hope that was fascinating. Well, my computer (McGillicudy) is having some issues with her (yes, her) screen for the past few weeks. It is time for a check-up, and also for me to get caffeine. Lots of it. Next time: things you do not want to hear come out of your doctor's mouth, and, if you're lucky, a brief rant about Daniel Defoe.