This year in March, it marked 17 years since being diagnosed with lupus. Thankfully I haven't flared since 2018. I use to flare really bad every 1-2 years. The only change has been my diet. Sometimes I have RA pain, but that's when I know I have been slipping with my diet, and sometimes is definitely better than daily, I will take that any day. Even though it has been years since I have had a horrible flare, I still get a little teary eyed when telling people more or less of what I went through. I try and act nonchalant, but it can be hard to hold back the tears. No one will ever really know what I went through, even if I give the details, it can be shocking because I seem so normal. "You went through chemo?", "you couldn't change yourself?", "you couldn't walk?". But those details are just the surface for me, there's so much more to the story...