| The rheumatologist felt Jo Beth's neck, and thumped her chest. He asked her if her chest had been hurting and whether she had shortness of breath, or trouble going up flights of stairs. He told her that she was in a lot of pain: that she had "fibromyalgia" and "pleurisy" and "pericarditis" (aches when poked, inflamed lungs, and an inflamed heart). He spent a lot of time with her hands. He looked at the white spots on her fingernails and the tiny blisters under the skin of her fingertips. He felt her knuckles, and looked at how her fingers bent (Jo Beth's pinkie looks a little bit like the picture). He asked her if she got tired around 2 PM. (How could he know?) He asked her if her hair was falling out. She said it wasn't. (She wouldn't admit to any man that she was going bald.) He asked if she bruised easily, and she showed him her piebald legs. After a total of 15 minutes in his office, the rheumatologist told Jo Beth that he suspected she had "systemic lupus erythmatosus"; also called "S.L.E." or "lupus", for short. |
The Diagnosis
Where Jo Beth learns a name for what's been happening.
Where Jo Beth learns a name for what's been happening.
Study Questions:
|
Lupus is named after the Latin
word for "wolf", because it
turns you into a monster.
word for "wolf", because it
turns you into a monster.
(Okay, that's not what the medical
texts say, but it makes more sense
than their explanation.)
texts say, but it makes more sense
than their explanation.)
This finger shape is called
"swan neck". Guess why.
"swan neck". Guess why.
