Henoch–Schönlein Purpura- My Legs!

cocopoops · #1 ● 09-25-2011, 07:00 PM

So! Basically I am a very healthy 39 year old female who out of the blue now has this illness caused by my immune system going fucking bonkers and working overtime. The outlook is very good but I am now laid up in bed- doctors orders.
It has taken 7 doctors here in Scotland to finally diagnose me- including ones in A&E and my own family doctor.

The photos are not gory but I feel like I have gone through hell so if this helps anyone then it will be worth posting.

The illness is called Henoch–Schönlein purpura and is a form of VASCULITIS.

Henoch–Schönlein purpura (HSP, also known as anaphylactoid purpura,[1] purpura rheumatica,[1] and Schönlein–Henoch purpura[1]) is a disease of the skin and other organs that most commonly affects children. In the skin, the disease causes palpable purpura (small hemorrhages); often with joint and abdominal pain.

With kidney involvement, there may be a loss of small amounts of blood and protein in the urine, but this usually goes unnoticed; in a small proportion of cases, the kidney involvement proceeds to chronic kidney disease. HSP is often preceded by an infection, such as pharyngitis.

HSP is a systemic vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels) and is characterized by deposition of immune complexes containing the antibody IgA; the exact cause for this phenomenon is presently unknown. It usually resolves within several weeks and requires no treatment apart from symptom control, but may relapse in a third of the cases and cause irreversible kidney damage in about one in a hundred cases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henoch%...6nlein_purpura

How it started- onto worse stage- biopsy and now recovery- No I can't shave my legs right now

My knees are so sore I can hardly walk and my tummy hurts.