centera href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4777914442/" title="DSC02702 by melusinagr, on Flickr"img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4076/4777914442_fa862c9548_m.jpg" alt="DSC02702" width="240" height="160" //abr /br /div style="text-align: center;"O setting sunbr /O passing daybr /The colors runbr /a bright arraybr /And though the nightbr /will close your eyesbr /All's set arightbr /by Dawn's sweet risebr //div/centerdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-3097325561084478606?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"When you live your life with a chronic illness you often find yourself fighting battles of different intensities from one day to the next.span style="" /spanA lot of “healthy” people often assume that it is the big battles that are the hardest – the long hospitalizations, the flare-ups, surgeries – yet those fights can be relatively easy.span style="" /spanIn big battles you end up putting all your energy into trying to survive and you know the cost of defeat from the beginning.span style="" /spanI find that it is the little battles I struggle most with – day to day living with pain, fatigue, taking new medications (with new side effects), limitations, sun exposure...the list can be quite endless if you spend too much time thinking about it.span style="" /spano:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"My latest Sisyphean challenge involves a new medication that I have recently started taking because my kidneys are refusing to cooperate fully with their natural filtration process.span style="" /spanI did give my kidneys a stern talking to, but unlike me they seem to be stuck in a perpetual teenaged state of defiance.span style="" /spanThis drug can encompass a host of side-effects, some of which I have already enjoyed in just a week of my daily dose.span style="" /spanIt started with headaches for the first four days (which have thankfully waned, as the drug brochure promised), and has now erupted into waves of extreme fatigue, frequent bruising, and some additional joint pain (honestly, one can never have enough joint pain).span style="" /spanI am now also more prone to infection and contracting common ailments.span style="" /spanThe icing on this side effect cake is that I will have to take blood tests every few weeks to make sure the medication isn’t causing more extreme bodily harm.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"Basically, I went from someone who was feeling relatively healthy, with lots of energy and hardly any pain to someone who is constantly tired and in pain – all to fix a small problem with my kidneys.span style="" /spanI once again managed to push that rock all the way to the top of the hill, only to have it tumble back down.span style="" /spanThe Greeks never realized how much their mythical punishments mimicked real life.span style="" /spanOr maybe they did.span style="" /spanThe only difference is I know this isn’t a punishment, it is just the way things are for anyone who fights a chronic illness.o:p/o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"o:p /o:p/span/p p class="MsoNormal"span style="" lang="EN-US"So I fight this small battle like I have fought numerous ones before and no doubt willspan style="" /spanin the future.span style="" /spanI will come out the victor, of that I am certain.span style="" /spanAnd if I am lucky, I will have a moment to sit on my rock and listen to Orpheus’ beautiful song before the battle starts all over again.o:p/o:p/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-3940472116890969337?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_q6HQgbYapMQ/TB0gQ4p9zQI/AAAAAAAAAJA/FzrQRfhYVTY/s1600/approachingstorm.jpg"img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_q6HQgbYapMQ/TB0gQ4p9zQI/AAAAAAAAAJA/FzrQRfhYVTY/s320/approachingstorm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5484575395665530114" border="0" //aspan style="font-family:georgia, bookman old style, palatino linotype, book antiqua, palatino, trebuchet ms, helvetica, garamond, sans-serif, arial, verdana, avante garde, century gothic, comic sans ms, times, times new roman, serif;"There's always a period of curious fear between the first sweet-smelling breeze and the time when the rain comes cracking down. ~Don Delillo/spandiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-2682617413876799411?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_q6HQgbYapMQ/TAzULjVhMnI/AAAAAAAAAI4/ftbNKXYivPk/s1600/twilight.jpg"img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_q6HQgbYapMQ/TAzULjVhMnI/AAAAAAAAAI4/ftbNKXYivPk/s320/twilight.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5479988141532197490" border="0" //aspan class="quote""Parting day Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues With a new colour as it gasps away, The last still loveliest, till--'tis gone--and all is gray./span" ~Lord Byrondiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-6561421706793524223?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a href="http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/caught_in_the_oil.html"These pictures/a are really horrible to look at, but it sure puts the oil "spill" (deluge?) into perspective.br /br /Thankfully, BP is taking some responsibility and is funding the rescue efforts of the a href="http://intbirdrescue.blogspot.com/2010/06/update-from-center-of-gulf-oiled-bird.html"International Bird Rescue Research Center/a. They accept donations, but are urging people to send donations to their local wildlife rehabilitation organizations. As the folks at the IBRRC put it, "A pelican is a pelican whether is it tangled in fishing tackle or oiled!"br /br /This is not a post meant to criticize or shame big oil, or the use of oil, or anything like that. It is simply that the things humans do that destroy wildlife on such a large scale make me very sad. This planet belongs to all living things, and despite their (apparent) lack of sentience, animals and plants deserve to be here just as much as we do.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-6952064471068746606?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_q6HQgbYapMQ/TAUGjmq4VTI/AAAAAAAAAIw/sDMsMw0bLls/s1600/amiga.jpg"img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_q6HQgbYapMQ/TAUGjmq4VTI/AAAAAAAAAIw/sDMsMw0bLls/s320/amiga.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5477791730511664434" border="0" //aSomehow my husband managed to dig up his old Amiga from the depths of his parents' summer house, and to our surprise, it still worked! They just don't make 'em like they used to.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-4031582838994217246?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

I’ve always heard people say something along the lines of “if you’ve lived with something your whole life, it isn’t so hard to accept it”. This phrase has usually come up in discussions about such devastating things as poverty, illness, blindness – you get the picture. I guess it makes people feel better to think that this statement is true, when the reality is that it is not.br /br /I’ve had Systemic Lupus Erythematosus for so long that I really don’t remember what “normal” life was like. I started getting sick at age 2 and was finally diagnosed when I was 7, and we all know our memories of those early years are difficult to access (perhaps in deep psychoanalysis, but I neither have the time, money, nor inclination to embark on such an endeavor). So let me tell you, living day in and day out with this disease, even with no memory of what it is like to not be sick, is not easy.br /br /For the past 18 years I’ve been relatively lucky, with no serious hospitalizations or flare-ups of the illness. I maintain my health with a minimum of medication, although if I go too many days without that medication I feel it. It is easy to gain a measure of confidence when you go so long without complications – to feel invincible – as if you can walk right up to the precipice and jump to find yourself flying instead of falling. With Lupus it always seems that it is at that exact moment, mid-flight, that everything changes and you begin to fall again. You can feel perfectly healthy one day and unable to get out of bed the next. Always you have Damocles’ sword hanging over you, dangling, threatening flare-ups, kidney failure, neurological damage, and a host of other problems. You never have power over your own health – the best you can do is take care of yourself and hope that things work out for the best instead of the worst.br /br /This is what I wish most people were more aware of when it comes to knowledge of Lupus. There is no one state of being with this illness. We aren’t always withering away in our beds. We are strong, we are happy, we are living our lives as well as we can. And if we are very lucky, there is always someone at the bottom of the precipice to catch us.br /br /Today is the last day of Lupus Awareness Month. Learn the facts by visiting the a href="http://www.lupus.org/newsite/index.html"Lupus Foundation of America website/a. Pass it on.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-6772251084273422654?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4575524034/" title="photo sharing"img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3376/4575524034_22c8d6a0d3_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" //abr /span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4575524034/"Sea at sunset, Halkidiki/abr /Originally uploaded by a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/melusinagr/"melusinagr/a/span/divThe beach at Nikiti in Halkidiki is one of my favorite places in Greece. It makes a nice weekend getaway for anyone who lives in and around Thessaloniki. The shops aren't too touristy and there are some truly exceptional restaurants (Grada and Kyani Akti to name a couple) - with reasonable prices.br /br /However, my biggest battle when it comes to places like this in Greece is with the sun. Living with lupus means I can't just run out to the beach any time I want, I have to plan my outings in the early morning or just before the sun goes down. For the most part I don't mind, as these are quite peaceful times to go to the beach. Still, sometimes I wish I could just go be in the sun without worrying about getting sick. During the day it can really bring me down, but by the time I get out into the early evening and see the sea looking like this, it seems just as beautiful as it does during the day.br clear="all" /div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-2594357635886943385?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4574915333/" title="photo sharing"img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4574915333_1a74f246fb_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" //abr /span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4574915333/"The rose/abr /Originally uploaded by a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/melusinagr/"melusinagr/a/span/divbr clear="all" /div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-5775289965819704843?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

div style="float: right; margin-left: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4575521062/" title="photo sharing"img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4575521062_7e17eb4382_m.jpg" alt="" style="border: solid 2px #000000;" //abr /span style="font-size: 0.9em; margin-top: 0px;"a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/melusinagr/4575521062/"DSC02400/abr /Originally uploaded by a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/melusinagr/"melusinagr/a/span/divIt seems I've been at a loss for words lately - I'm always either too tired, too grumpy, or too disenchanted with the way things are in the world. Since I take a lot of pictures, I'll let them tell my stories now and then, at least until I have something to say.br clear="all" /div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-669695087523978589?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

centerobject width="425" height="344"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QQAQUAQ9Cxwhl=en_USfs=1color1=0x3a3a3acolor2=0x999999"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QQAQUAQ9Cxwhl=en_USfs=1color1=0x3a3a3acolor2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/object/centerbr /br /*Quote from the poem "I lived the beloved name..." by Odysseas Elytisdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-5386795447978219514?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div

a href="http://litochoro.blogspot.com/2006/10/my-life-with-wolf.html"I've shared the story of my life with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus here before/a. Now Lupus Awareness month falls in May, and I feel that even though I'm not keeping up with the blog as regularly as I used to, I need to promote awareness and help to quell some falsehoods that might have arisen during the Miss USA pageant last night.br /span class="UIIntentionalStory_Names" ft="{quot;typequot;:quot;namequot;}"/spanspan style="font-weight: normal;font-size:100%;" span class="UIStory_Message"br /It seems that during the Miss USA pageant, Morgan Woolard, the runner up for Miss America (from Oklahoma), claimed that she cured herself of Lupus. Obviously, this is impossible (unless she had drug-induced lupus, which is a bit misleading). Spreading false information like this in such a public forum hurts the effortspan class="text_exposed_hide"s/spanspan class="text_exposed_show" of all of us who are working towards promoting awareness for Lupus, and it belittles those of us who have been fighting this illness day in and day out. Spread the word...learn the facts about Lupus at the Lupus Foundation of America a href="http://www.lupus.org/"website/a./span/span/spanbr /br /I live in Greece, so I did not have the opportunity to watch the pageant first-hand. I only heard about Ms. Woolard's claims from scores of angry Lupus patients across the internet. Still, misinformation is no way to promote awareness, especially when it is estimated that around 80% of the public knows very little or nothing about Lupus - and so I wanted to share the facts.br /br /From the Lupus Foundation of America website:br /br /p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"span style="font-size:85%;"It is true that medical science has not yet developed a method for curing lupus. And some people do die from the disease. However, people with non-organ threatening aspects of lupus can look forward to a normal lifespan if they:/span/p ul style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"lispan style="font-size:85%;"follow the instructions of their physician, /span/lispan style="font-size:85%;"litake their medication(s) as prescribed, and /liliknow when to seek help for unexpected side effects of a medication or a new manifestation of their lupus./li/span/ul p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"span style="font-size:85%;"Although some people with lupus have severe recurrent attacks and are frequently hospitalized, most people with lupus rarely require hospitalization. There are many lupus patients who never have to be hospitalized, especially if they are careful and follow their physician's instructions./span/p p style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(51, 204, 255);"span style="font-size:85%;"New research brings unexpected findings each year. The progress made in treatment and diagnosis during the last decade has been greater than that made over the past 100 years. It is therefore a sensible idea to maintain control of a disease that tomorrow may be curable./span/pPlease spread the word and a href="http://www.lupus.org/newsite/pages/lupus-awareness-month.html"span style="font-style: italic;"Band Together for Lupus/span/a!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8435777-7844944746413132720?l=litochoro.blogspot.com' alt='' //div