The road to diagnosis and management of lupus is different for everyone. Each person has unique triggers and symptoms. Learn how Mymee helped Jordana manage her lupus symptoms and get her life back in this success story.
Meet Jordana, living with lupus.
When Jordana came to Mymee, she was exhausted – physically and emotionally. She had been struggling with a range of symptoms for nearly a decade that had begun following having three babies in under three years.
When Jordana first noticed her fatigue was unmanageable, she was parenting a six-month-old, one-and-a-half-year-old, and three-year-old. She was walking miles per day and lugging baby gear. But, she says, “my tiredness felt different.”
Jordana’s joints were swollen and stiff upon waking up. Thanks to a blood test ordered by her doctor, Jordana was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis – this, in addition to her conditions of lupus, fibromyalgia, and Raynaud’s phenomenon.
Then, Jordana’s health troubles worsened further still. She experienced debilitating migraines and completely lost her ability to hear in one ear. Plus, being in sunlight and fluorescent lighting left her with rashing and a painful reaction on the skin of her face.
Jordana desperately looked to different doctors for help in addressing her health struggles. When she went to her traditional health care providers, they dismissed her. “Well, your organs aren’t failing, so that’s not as bad as some people,” Jordana recounted one doctor saying.
While she found validation from holistic practitioners, it wasn’t until Jordana started Mymee that she experienced significant relief of autoimmune disease symptoms.
Jordana learned to manage her lupus symptoms through Mymee.
Working with her Mymee health coach, Jordana uncovered autoimmune disease symptom triggers that she wouldn’t have guessed on her own. While she had come to understand that she needed to limit her exercise and include animal protein and gluten to manage some symptoms, she was still lost.
“It was a little bit upside down for me because I do the opposite of what other people might consider ‘healthy,’” explained Jordana. She was using her Fitbit to ensure she kept her step count down, not up. “My autoimmunity means I can’t get too much exercise without consequences.”
Based on Jordana’s in-app, self-tracking on diet and other factors, and their one-on-one sessions, Jordana’s Mymee health coach identified her symptom triggers over time. Jordana was now armed with the knowledge that fructose, dairy, corn, and potato starches caused her lupus symptom flares.
“The process of narrowing everything down to avoid my triggers took some time, but tracking my triggers helped me understand what foods would better suit my needs,” explained Jordana. Now, she feels much better with some simple swaps.
“I now use maple syrup instead of honey or artificial sweeteners, cashew milk for smoothies,” said Jordana. “Watermelon seed butter gives me some protein without the peanuts that I now know don’t work for me.” Plus, she knows sunlight is her only environmental trigger and can take measures to avoid it.
“Having support has been invaluable in my health journey,” explained Jordana. “Beyond helping me discover my different triggers and finding ways to manage around that, having someone I can talk to who believes me and really listens has also made a difference.”
Now, after ten years, Jordana says that she’s learned having a good quality of life is possible and wants to share that with others grappling with autoimmune disease symptoms. “Don’t give up,” urged Jordana. “This is your life; you might be surprised to find it’s possible to live it on your terms.”
