Hi everyone,

Please hear me out, because I really need to write this down….

do you know this feeling, your life is going quite well, you’re really starting to get the things you want in motion, and then… you receive a message which yanks away almost all of the ground where you’re standing on (so to speak)… This happened to me this last few months…

My story

It started about 2 months ago. My mother was diagnosed with sjögren’s disease, more specifically the aggressive variant thereof. Long story short, it’s an autoimmune disease which dehydrates the entire body from the inside out, and as such opens up loopholes so other diseases can arise more easily.

Sjögren’s disease isn’t curable, but when diagnosed early-on there is kind-of-a-treatment to have some form of a containment method so the disease doesn’t progress fast. However, the doctors were too late in diagnosing this disease, which meant there was no way of containing it anymore with medication. This news was the first blow I’ve got to handle.. Which was hard, but doable… Few weeks later the doctors hinted my mother might possibly had attracted a lupus-like infection in conjunction with the already present sjögren’s disease. ( Lupus is a disease which “eats” your body from the inside out )

The last few weeks were agonizing, my mother’s health deteriorated little by little although fast enough for her to get hospitalized for a few day’s every week or so… The real smack in my face has been last week… My mother’s health deteriorated faster and faster, which resulted in her being hospitalized with severe pneumonia in both her lungs, last thursday-evening. At this time Sjögren’s disease was really having a ball and it was there with a vengeance… In the last day’s she became more ill, and this ultimately resulted in her passing away this morning…

At this moment I’m having trouble concentrating, I’m emotionally paralyzed (although overloaded could also describe it), and I’ve got the feeling my entire “foundation” had been shattered away from under my feet…

I’m sorry if I’ve bothered you with my story. It’s just, that I really need to get it out of my system, and writing helps they say…
Thank you for listening…

Please help defeat sjögren’s

Logo Reumafonds

If you want to support the clinical studies to learn more about and hopefully create a cure against sjögren’s disease, please support the dutch “Reumafonds” by donating a few euro’s. ( I know.. it’s not like me to beg for donations, but this disease cost my mother’s life… so in this case I’m making an exception ). You can donate on their site using this url: https://actie.reumafonds.nl/doneren/kies… I for one would be really greatful.