Faith Through the Flare: A Journey with Lavita Williams

Join host Savannah Burks for another powerful episode of Lupus Has No Face as she sits down with her dear sister, LaVita, a resilient advocate and warrior navigating life with lupus and ankylosing spondylitis. LaVita shares her inspiring journey of faith, strength, and perseverance, revealing how her unwavering belief in God, community support, and her vibrant spirit guide her through life's challenges. From overcoming debilitating health setbacks to balancing motherhood, education, and entrepreneurship, LaVita discusses how faith and support systems help her not just survive but thrive. Her story emphasizes the importance of advocating for yourself, leaning on your faith, and embracing your authentic self—flair and all. Whether you're dealing with chronic illness, personal loss, or life’s unexpected hurdles, this episode reminds us all that faith, resilience, and community can be powerful tools in transforming struggles into strength. Tune in for motivation, real talk, and a celebration of survivorship and self-love.

Thank you for tuning in to "Lupus Has No Face," a podcast dedicated to sharing real stories and insights on living with Lupus and other invisible illnesses. Join your host, Savannah Burks, as she explores the struggles and triumphs of individuals navigating their health journeys, all while juggling life's many challenges. Don't miss an episode! Subscribe, listen, and share on all major podcast platforms. For more content and updates, follow us on social media and join the conversation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
H m hm m h r waited shirt her street up.

(00:21):
M m m m m m m mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Hello you guys, Thank you for tuning in to another
wonderful Wednesday with your hosts Savannah for Lucas Has No
Face podcast and our wonderful guests of my sister Ms Levita.
We will be discussing faith through flair. So with that
being said, faith through flair, that's a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Right, That's a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
And not only do we have our Lupus Warrior, amongst
other things, we were discussing lupus and spider lights.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Did I say it right?

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Anklosing spandel?

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Okay, yeah, I'll say that right.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
So before we jump into all the hardcore things, who
is miss Levita?

Speaker 4 (02:11):
Just?

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Who is Miss Levita without the diagnosis?

Speaker 5 (02:15):
Oh my goodness. So I am type a personality. I'm
very jovial, I'm a giver. I'm a happy person. You
would think I would be depressed with this diagnosis, but
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (02:30):
I don't have the depression part. I don't get into
being depressed. I get down sometimes, but not like a depression.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
You know.

Speaker 5 (02:38):
I am We'll give you the shirt off my back.
I am someone that loves hard. I love people. I
try to do what I can for my friend. I'm
a very good friend to anybody.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
I am I am. I pride myself in being a
good friend to people.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
Even when people are not good friends to me, I'm
still a good friend to them.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
I'm still a friend.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
If someone is in need and we were friends and
we don't talk for a while and they call me,
I'm still Johnny on the spot for them.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
So that's just kind of who I am. I'm a mother.

Speaker 5 (03:13):
I have two grown sons, twenty eight and thirty.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
I have to remember that. And I have a daughter
who's adopted my tea.

Speaker 5 (03:25):
And if people follow me on Facebook, they know her journey.
So she's ten getting ready to be eleven. She's such
a blessing. I have five grandchildren, so I'm a granny, okay,
And that is my heart, Like those those babies are
my heart. I love those babies, all five of them.

(03:46):
I love them all. And so yeah, that's who I am.
A sister, a daughter, you know, very faith based.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
I believe in Jesus.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
I'm a child God first and foremost, so a prayer
warrior to say the least.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
And yeah, so that's kind of a little bit about.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
Me, and you are a proud member of who I
am a.

Speaker 5 (04:14):
Proud member of Gamma py Roll Looper Sorority in corporate.

Speaker 4 (04:19):
That part, okay.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
Also I am one of I am actually one of
the founders of Gamma py Roll Loop and Sorority and
corporate it all my sore rowers out there, you being
one of them.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I just wanted to shout out to them.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
So yeah, okay, well thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Like you find wearing all of those hats being overwhelming?
And when I say old woman, sometimes older woman is
not always a bad thing. Do you find wearing all
of those hats can be overwhelming for your dynas it.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
Is?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
It is overwhelming a lot.

Speaker 5 (05:06):
Because I am I forgot to mention that I am
in school right now obtaining my masters.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
I am three classes away from being done.

Speaker 4 (05:16):
Betty, let's blow a girl. Let's go Okay, I'm.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
Still you know, I'm in this class now.

Speaker 5 (05:21):
I'll be done in like a couple more weeks and
then I go to the next and three classes away.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
So but it's it's we gonna sell now. You know,
we're gonna celebrate. You know, we're gonna celebrate, Okay, So
I'm excited about that. It is it's hard.

Speaker 5 (05:38):
Going to school when you you know, when you have
Lucas and you know, it's staying focused, keeping your mind sharp.
It's it takes a toll on you, especially when you're
you're a mother and you have other responsibilities to do.
And I just I just got my uh, custody of
three of my grandkids. So that's a little bit more. Yeah,

(06:03):
so that's a little bit more. Just went through divorce.
A lot of people don't know that, but I did.
I just just recently got divorced after I was with
them was seventeen years.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
Yeah, so it's a lot.

Speaker 5 (06:19):
It's a lot, but still going to school, still doing
what I need to.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Do, still managing, still pushing through faith. You're strong and
you want better, So no excuses over here.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
So gotta with me all the way, no.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Matter what those circumstances are. You have to make a
choice what you did to continue your life happily and
help them.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
So I applause to you than you can.

Speaker 2 (06:46):
You share your journey with Loopez And I cannot say
this word. It ain't coming right off my tone. It's okay,
it's not going up all my tingue. Spinal delights anclosing
spundylightis sound lights fundelighted you guys, I just cannot uh

(07:10):
Spundelians and how it all began for you.

Speaker 5 (07:15):
So I want to say the journey started around nineteen
ninety eight when I gave birth to my son.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
So I gave birth to my youngest.

Speaker 5 (07:28):
Son in nineteen ninety eight, and like shortly, like maybe
a year or so after that, maybe even two years
after that.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
I'm gonna say maybe two years after that.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
I was I was going through and I think because
I had a hard birth with him. It was a
it was a rough it was a rough traumatic birth
thing with him. It was it was it was a
hard birth, and I think that's what triggered it and
pushed it and put and brought that loopis to surface.

(08:00):
I was having a lot of pain, and they thought
I was crazy. They thought I was in my mind,
you know. They I kept saying I was having pain.
I was having pain. It was up and down my back,
so my spine. I have a lot of pain in
my spine. So at the base of my spine is
where the ankylosing's fundylitis is. So they had diagnosed me

(08:23):
with that, and at a time, I'm gonna tell you this,
and this is I'm telling you God heal me from
God has healed me from that. And I know that
sometimes I still have the symptoms. But I remember I
was walking up. I had to use a walker. I
had my baby, he was like two years old. Now

(08:43):
I had my other son, he was four years old,
and we were going to church. And I had got
diagnosed with this anklosing's fundylitis before the loopis diagnosis, and
I was for the loopis diagnosis and I was and
I was bent all over, hunched all over, and I
couldn't stand up, and it was hard for me to walk.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
I couldn't.

Speaker 5 (09:04):
It affects your legs, it affects you. It's your spine.
It's right in your spine, so it affects you where
you can't walk. And I remember I went to church
with the walker and my two kids, and I remember
my grandmother said, you need to give your life to God.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
You need to get baptized, give your life to God.

Speaker 5 (09:25):
And they were baptizing people that day, and I wasn't
prepared to be baptized. But I'm like, you know what,
my grandmother said I need to be baptized. And I'll
tell you when I got in that water and I
asked God to heal me from that, and I got
in that water and came back up.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
I promise you I didn't have that pain like that
no more.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
I have not been on a walker, like walking with
a walker like that since that day. Wow, just walking
with Lis like having to like stay. I was on
a walk like literally could not move go no anywhere.
People were having to have to pick me up and
take me to the bathroom and things like that. But
it was also mixed with the loopus, which they didn't

(10:09):
find out yet. So Icculosie's fund lighters plus mixed with
mixed with lupus that was causing me all the pain. Wow,
But lupas wasn't showing up, so I didn't. So I
didn't really get a diagnosis for loopus until two thousand
and nine because every time they did a test on me,

(10:31):
my my, my, everything was normal, like my informations was high,
but my ana and all those tests they do for loopus,
they was showing normal. I would get the blood butterfly rashes,
I would get the bruises all over my body. They
kept saying, you have all the symptoms of lupus, but
it's not it's not we can't it's not showing up.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Wow, And why was that? Do you know why it
wasn't showing up in the blood work.

Speaker 5 (10:57):
I have no idea. I have no I remember I
went to now, I went to Rush Hospital in Chicago
and they and I was in there for about seven
days and then they diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. So I
got I got diagnosed with five romyalgia. That was in
like two thousand, early two thousand or whatever. It was like, well,

(11:18):
I'm not yeah, around the early two thousand, I got
diagnosed with fibromyolgia. So it wasn't out there that bad, right,
you know, people didn't know about it. So when they
told me, I'm just like I was just relieved that
I had a diagnosis. I wasn't crazy in the head.
I knew I was having pain, so it was like,
that's what I was happying about. Okay, they diagnosed me
with something. Okay, let's see how we can fix it.

(11:39):
But then it was like, oh, people say, that's the
made up disease, and you know, it was a lot
of stereotype behind having fibromyolgia, So it was hard for
me to get treated for it because and then Lord Lord, no,
I am allergic or adverse reactions to medicines from A
to Z. But every day was putting me on I

(12:01):
was had some type of adverse reaction, and it was
my body is real sensitive to medicines.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Like they put me on that lyrica. I went blind. Yes,
I went blind on liquor at work.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
How long did that last?

Speaker 5 (12:19):
So the blindness lasted like a couple of days, it was.
And then it got like blurry because I stopped the medicine.
So it was just like everything was blurry, blurry, blurry, blurry.
And then I got my sight back.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
But I was at work and I was like, okay,
something's going on with my eyes.

Speaker 5 (12:35):
And I knew my eyes were getting blurry, and I
was like, Okay'm gonna go to the eye doctor.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
But you know, I was putting it off because I
was working.

Speaker 5 (12:41):
I was putting it off, and I said right there
in my dad, I'm like, I can't I can't see.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
It was so it went from it went from being
blurry to nothing at all.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
I couldn't see. I couldn't.

Speaker 4 (12:54):
Feel in that moment, I was scared.

Speaker 5 (12:57):
I was scared because I'm telling my working next to me,
like I can't see, I can't see, and it was
like it was real and then again real blurry. Then
it was like I couldn't see, and then real blurry
and I couldn't see, and kind to find out.

Speaker 3 (13:10):
It was from the Lyrica.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Yeah, so that was for fibromyalgia, the wonder drug.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
So so what was that allergic reaction that you had?

Speaker 3 (13:25):
They said it was so one percent of the people
experience blindness.

Speaker 4 (13:43):
My gosh, oh I was.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
I was than one percent.

Speaker 5 (13:49):
So it's just you know, you gotta know what you
can take, what you can't take.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
So I've been through this going far.

Speaker 5 (13:56):
I've been on this rodeo for a minute, so I
know what I can take and I can you know
what I'm allowed to take and things like that, because
you gotta be on advocate because doctors will put you
on it. They will put you just trying to put
you on stuff and you your body's not reacted to it.
They put me on some medicine and I was actually
dying from it. It had turned me gray. I was

(14:17):
all gray.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
I can't remember what. I was gray. I was in
the hospital literally dying. I was dying.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
And one of my friends from church had came, and
my my dad came, my son came out there. And
this is when I had the lupus diagnosis. Now now
I've diagnosed with lupus, but they put me. I forgot
what medicine that was. Listen, I can't think I had
turned all gray.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
I had. I was gray. Do you hear me?

Speaker 4 (14:45):
Like your eye?

Speaker 5 (14:47):
My whole body? I was gray looking. I was gray
looking like as she gray. I was actually gray looking
on this medicine and I was and I was lit.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
I was dying. I felt myself dying. I felt I
was dying. I felt myself dying.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
So you went to hospital?

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Was that?

Speaker 5 (15:05):
They put me in hospital. They put me in the hospital.
They were still giving me the medicine. They put me
in the hospital. They were still giving me the medicine.
And my friend, a friend of mine, she's from church,
a prayer warrior two. She came and she saw me.
And I was on morphine too, So I was in

(15:26):
and out of consciousness.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
I was on morphine and I was itching. I was gray.
I was in and out of consciousness. I just remember
that whole scene.

Speaker 5 (15:35):
And she just like flung the covers off of me
and just started praying over my whole body, just praying
over my whole body, praying over my whole body. My
son came to see me. He was in his teens,
and he was like, he thought I was finishing. He
thought I was spinna die. He said, you, I thought
you this was it for you. He thought I was
finna die. My youngest son had came out to see me, him.

Speaker 3 (15:56):
And my dad and baby. When I tell you, this
is how I know God.

Speaker 5 (16:01):
That's why I said my faith, the faith, because this
woman prayed over me. And when I tell you, death
skipped me. The lady that was going home, that was
next to me, was going home the next day. She
ended up passing away in the middle of the night.
They come rushing me out the room and put me

(16:23):
in the other room. I'm feeling better now. My color
then came back. My color came back that twenty four hours.
My color came back. And the lady next, older lady,
very older lady, she was going home. She was she
was praying for me too. She was in next bed
praying for me. My friend came. She prayed for me.
She just lay all all over me, just prayed for me.

(16:44):
And I tell you, my color came back. That next day,
they had rolled me out of the room because the
lady had passed away.

Speaker 3 (16:51):
I'm like, what's going on? What's going on? And when
the nurses said, your roommate she passed away, I'm like, oh,
cause she was going home. He was like, no, she
passed away. That's why we have to take you out
of that room.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
That death was that was that was that depth. It
was on me.

Speaker 5 (17:08):
It was on me, and I know it was on me.
But God saved me for a reason. And that's why
I try not to do people wrong. I try to keep,
you know, my integrity. I try to I try to
love on all the people that I cau love on.
Even with me having this diagnosis and things that I
went through, even though I went through this horrible divorce

(17:28):
and things like that, I don't hate nobody because God
saved me for a purpose.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
He saved me for a reason. And I absolutely.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Absolutely that just sounds so scary like being, you know,
dying on for one thing from the next thing, to
find out that you have loops and to be on
medication that you're going blind and then you're dying, like
that is a lot to deal with.

Speaker 3 (17:57):
I was, I was, I was passing out at work.
I had a good job.

Speaker 5 (18:02):
I was working for a pharmaceutical company, had just got
my bachelor's degree with moving up the corporate ladder, and
I kept on falling out at work, like passing out,
like passing out, walking down the hallway, passing out, just
passing out.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
So I'm like, okay, is this loopus? What is happening here?

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Why?

Speaker 3 (18:18):
Who?

Speaker 5 (18:18):
I keep on passing out? And then I found out
that I had pot syndrome, so that has part So
I had.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
A job protected, Like going through all of this, were
you able to put things in place like FMLA short
term learn I have, you can keep your job.

Speaker 5 (18:38):
So I had to go on short term disability. But
what I should have done and I did it was
take long term disability instead of going back to work.
But I was trying to go back to work to
keep my job because I was trying to get another job.
So I wanted to go back to work because I
was moving up, so I was trying to get this
other position, and I'm like, I need to.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
Hurry up and get back to work.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
So I went back to work, and my doctor was like, well,
when you go in, when you go on to work,
just get the paperwork.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
We're gonna do long term disability. So as soon as
I came.

Speaker 5 (19:10):
Into the job, they walked me to the little office
in the little conference room and politely told me they
had to let me go.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
So did you have f MLA in place before.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
I or I had I had FMLA in place.

Speaker 5 (19:24):
I had short term disability, and I just came back
from certain short term disability the day that I came
back to work on short term disability. And that's why
I tell people, if you're out, stay out. If you're
out and you're gonna go on the long term, stay
out because if you go back to work, if they
if you go back in, that you're okay.

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Come back to work that day.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
Even though I was coming back and I was gonna
get paperwork so I can go out on long term,
you can't go back in because they can let you go.
And Illinois is an at will firing state.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
So okay, so let's just search basis on that just
for a second. Because from what I know right the
leg work and stuff that I've done living in Wisconsin
FMLA or even across the states, because it's the same rules.
FMLA is supposed to protect you to not lose your job.

(20:20):
So how did that unfold?

Speaker 4 (20:22):
Like you had.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
FMLA to protect you to keep your job, So how
did that unfold while you're having FMLA, but you still
lost your job.

Speaker 5 (20:31):
Because I did not go. I wasn't out on FMLA.
I was out on short term disability, gotcha, So I wasn't.
If I would have been out on FMLA, then that
been something different.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
I wasn't out on FMLA.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Girl was suppot to say, tell me something. Hold on,
we got a lawsuit because see, and I.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Thought I had a lawsuit, So let me tell you
because they fired me.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
And I have like all these certificates, all this awards
and stuff for doing you know, great customer service, great
dis great that great admin work. I had all these
certificates and stuff, and and they let me go. So
I'm just like, okay, how can you let me go?
Like I'm a good worker when I'm there? Yes i am.

Speaker 3 (21:15):
But if you know, they need they need people in
the place, they.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Don't you know, they don't want nobody falling out at
the job and whatever, you know, got to have an
ambulance come off every other day picking her up, you know,
so so, and I understand their point, but I just
felt like, I mean, it hurt me when I lost
my dad. It hurt me because then that's when I
had to file for disability and that was, yeah, that

(21:38):
it hurt me to do because I was a I'm
a worker, like I work, like I'm you know, I
just got my degrees. I'm I'm over here moving and shaking,
I'm working, I'm doing this. I was working two jobs.
I was you know, I'm trying to I'm a mom.
You know how we do as women. And it just
it just hurt me when I when I lost that job.

(22:00):
So I did try to sue them, but it wasn't
a loss of because because Illinois can let you go
for any reason. You dropped a pan, they and said, okay,
we can let you go. We just don't want you
no more. They don't even have to give you a
reason to let you go. In the state of Illinois.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
Yeah, I think that's a lot of states because here
too is.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
So it's at will fire states.

Speaker 5 (22:21):
So so, but I did Now, I did get unemployment.
They didn't give me unemployment, so I did get unemployment.
So I was able to get unemployment. And that's the
time Obama was in office, and that he extended when
his first year in office and he extended that unemployment.
So I ended up getting unemployment all the way until

(22:42):
I got my disability.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
That now that was a good thing.

Speaker 5 (22:47):
That was a blessing because I was because they did.
They denied me three times for.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
Disability, because for disability you got to be like off
of work for like day there, a year, right six months.

Speaker 5 (22:59):
So I think you're supposed to have like three diagnosis,
but I don't know how long you're supposed to be
off work because I had a lawyer from the jump,
so they was doing all the legwork. So all I
know is they denied me three times. And I went
to the disability doctor and he was like, you know
you have And that's how I found out that I
that the loopis like I had lupus, said, because my

(23:21):
roomatologists kept selling me, no, it's not lupus, No, it's
not lupus, not lupus. And then the disability doctor was like, yeah,
right here, it shows on your paper you have lupus.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
That's strange.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
The disability doctor signed off and that's how I ended
up getting the disability.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
So it's very important a lesson to be learned. Is
very important for you to go over and read your
own paperwork because it was there.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
They were just telling you that you did not have it.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
It was there. And I kept going in the hospital
and I kept saying, well, what is wrong with me?

Speaker 5 (23:51):
They was like, oh, you have rheumatori arthritis or you
It's just it's just on on Mune.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
You just have information.

Speaker 5 (23:59):
And you know, it was giving me all this back
and forth and whatever, you know, and me being new,
not knowing how to be an advocate for myself, listening
to the doctors taking the medicine and I'm dying because
I've taken all the medicines.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
You got to be your own advocate.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
Man.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Well, it was a blessing to disguise because you're still
moving and shaking out. It wasn't the route that you
wanted to take, but it's the route that he wanted
you to take. So you know, you didn't lose anything.
What challenges have you faced in managing your symptoms over
the years.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Wow, So payments.

Speaker 5 (24:42):
For sure, trying to get because so many people abuse
pay medicines out here. It's hard to get pay medicine.
It is really hard to get pay medicine.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
And I know what works for me, and I know
how much I need to take. But they're not listening,
like they don't want to listen, or they want to
give you these corduroys shots and steroids shots and all
these shots and want to put shots in my back
and all of that.

Speaker 5 (25:16):
You can't do that. You can't work around with my
back like that. You can't be just putting shots in
my back end. So they get upset because they can't
do what they want to do, thinking that they're stopping
my pain and you're not. But I know what's good
for me, Like I could take an eight hundred iverprofen
and a half of an oracle okay, half, not a whole,

(25:37):
a half.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
So this is so I'm telling you.

Speaker 5 (25:39):
My body is real funny acting, so I can't take
an oracle five or some the ingredients in an oracle
five makes me feel like I'm stroking out or something.
But if I have a ten and I put it
in half, I could take a half of a ten.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Time out right, But I do have a medical background.
We both do.

Speaker 4 (26:06):
So my question to you is that they should be
the same.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Ingredients, right, They're supposed to be, and the only thing
that's changing is the strength.

Speaker 4 (26:18):
This is right, exactly, How in the heck that is possible?

Speaker 5 (26:25):
So it's something that's in the fives. I don't know
what else did they put in something that's in the
oracle fives that make me? But so the ten is
too strong for me because I'm I'm I'm real lighte
with medicine, so I'm not a heavyweight medicine person. So
a ten is too strong something I can only take

(26:47):
a half of a I can only take a half
of one, right, So I have to split it in
a half. So that's how they last me so long,
because I I split them in half. I can't take
a whole one. So I could take an eight hundred
iver pro and I can take a half of an
oracle and then that helps me with my pain.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
You should find out what's the difference that's in there, because.

Speaker 3 (27:10):
He told me, I think the doctor. So my doctor
did tell me.

Speaker 5 (27:16):
That it might be something that's in the five, and
I think he told me what it was. But this
while ago, because I've been doing this little regiment for
a while. So it's like like even with like when
they're in that when you're in the hospital and they
try to give.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
You pain medicine.

Speaker 5 (27:32):
So morphine makes me want to scratch my skin off,
so I don't take that, and it makes me hallucinate,
so I can't.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
I can't deal with morphine.

Speaker 5 (27:42):
So they try to get me diladed, but I can't
take di lodded unless they they have to put they
have to half and half it, so they have to
have a half saline solution and half dilaighted and mix
it and then they can give it to me. I
can't take straight I cannot. I can't straight DIY lines

(28:02):
and it has to be a load dosage, a doe.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
Like I like.

Speaker 4 (28:08):
But I know what I need. Just give me what
I'm asking for. This is how I should go.

Speaker 3 (28:13):
So I love my doctor.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
I love my doctor because he knows, so he gives
some specific instructions on how to deal with That's why
I don't like change the doctors, because he knows what
I need, what I he knows how to how to
put it in, he knows how to write it up.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
He knows what I need, and.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
That give her, give her ten she's gonna put, she
gonna she's gonna split in half, and then give her
the APROF eight hundred.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
And that is a regimen. That's how that helps me.

Speaker 5 (28:40):
All that other stuff I can't my It's like my
my body is so sensitive to stuff.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
I can't take Bena drill if I take even children.

Speaker 4 (28:51):
But I thought I was bad.

Speaker 2 (28:54):
I can't have any antibiotics besides Clinton myas and so
they're giving me Clintons for almost anything. But because I'm
allergic to all the other antibodotics, which is crazy, because
they did a study. They I did an allergy test
and they had to admit me to the hospital. So
all of the antibodies that I am allergic they did

(29:18):
like just little bitty droplets and try to introduce my
body into them so maybe down the line, if I
ever need them, they can give them to me safely.
But girl, that did not last long because I started
getting bubbles on my skin and it was breaking our ready,
so they had to stop the whole process. So still
as of today, I only could take Clinton, Bason and

(29:38):
clint To Miason only helped for so much. So that's
why I'm very uh safe and protective of what it
is that I do, because who's going to the emergency
room for something that can't get rid of what?

Speaker 3 (29:50):
And it's crazy because you have to you have to
think about that.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
And as we get older, or as I get older,
or as we get older, you're you're you can't. Your
body can't tolerate a lot of something, especially when you
have loopers. When you get older, your body rejects things.
I used to could take Benadroel back in the day.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
I can't. I can't.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
I had ate some food that I was allergic to
that I forgot a PF chin and I forgot that
I'm allergic to that because I hadn't eaten it in
a long time. But I love it and I had
ate it and got the breaking out and girl took
a bend. It was like, God, I can't take ben drill.
Felt like I was having a heart attack.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
And this was chilling.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
And then that was the time.

Speaker 4 (30:29):
It was that recently, like what it was a while.
Oh my goodness, that's not funny, but it's funny. I'm
Goulda died.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
That was recently, Yes, so it's just it's just we
have to be our own advocate.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
We have to know our own body, and we have
to make the doctors listen to what we're saying, Like
you need to listen to what I'm saying about my body,
because you know what I'm saying. And it's frustrating when
when you go to the emergency room and then they
don't want to call your doctor to find out what
it is that you need, because I'll be like, call

(31:06):
my doctor because he knows while y'all over here trying
to give me this and this and that I can't
have that.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
Well, it's nothing we can do for you. I'm trying
to tell you what you could do. They don't you know,
they don't want to listen. Yeah, so that's real question.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
So managing your the man the man's but you got
it down to a regiment now, so you okay, you
overcame that. I don't care, y'all excuse me to I
have not been feeling well for like the last I
don't know how many days. I'm just literally getting my
voice back and getting some some energy and almost being

(31:47):
back to myself. But I'm not one hundred percent. But
you know, potting is my thing. If I don't show up,
the people are showing up to see what they can learn.
So you know I'm here today. I'm doing the best
I can. Hopefully y'all can't hear me. How has your
faith played a role in your healing and coping strategies?

Speaker 5 (32:12):
You know, I meditate and I pray a lot. I
meditate on God's word and that's that helps me. My
church family is wonderful. My church family that support I need.
They know about lupas. They know if they pray for
me all the time. And you know, my saying now
is I have the I don't. So I'm not claiming

(32:34):
lupus no more.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
I'm like I have.

Speaker 5 (32:36):
I might have the symptoms, but Gouds heal me from lupus.
But I might have some symptoms, but Gouds healing me
from lupas. Because I'm I'm I. Whether they get a
cure or not, whether they get this cure, I'm going
to claim I am healed in the name of Jesus.
I'm healed because I know that God is a healer
and he can do it. So my faith is very

(32:57):
strong in that. And and sometimes I it. You know,
you get you you know how everybody's getting We get
broke down week and we can't with you know, walk
or whatever the case. But being we in lock of pain,
and I still have to tell myself of my mind
and I have to go back to the scripture. Like
God is able, he is able, he is able to
heal me. He by his stripes, I am healed, you know.

(33:19):
So I have to I meditate on those scriptures. Now,
I keep that faith. I pray a lot. I when
I say I pray a lot, I pray a lot.
My church family pray a lot, We pray, my kids pray.
We always praying. So that's one of the things I
incorporated in my life, and that helps me. My faith
helps me. I know, people believe in a lot of

(33:40):
different things or whatever it can will help you.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
And if it helps you get through this, do it.
If it helps you get through the pain, do it.

Speaker 5 (33:51):
If I gotta lay in the bed of the crowds
of Jesus like it till the stop, That's what I'm
gonna do because that's that's the only person that I
know that can help me through the pain, that I
can go to that will help me through the pain.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
Like doctors can only do so much. And again, like
I told you before my story with these doctors that
they can only do so much. Yeah, I can do
it all. And that's just and that's how I feel
about that.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
I'm definitely with you on faith. Faith is.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Having loop is it just gives you a stronger What
for me, I'm gonna say for me being dinosed with
loop is it just made me tap into my faith
to no point in return, Like the faith for me
is extremely literally unexplainable.

Speaker 4 (34:43):
So I totally understand what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
And that's when you get to see all the miracles
and things you can't explain, but you can feel comfortable
telling somebody like listen, I had X, Y and Z
and God did that, Like you know what I mean.
So I'm happy to speak of his name on his
name for the things that I've can through because I
don't see no other way that they would it would
have happened. So I totally understand what you're saying when

(35:05):
you say faith.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
And it's and it's hard when when you're when it's
somebody that doesn't have a faith like yours or doesn't
believe as how you believe, and you're trying to help
to get through because.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
I run I run a leader and Lupus support group
in Zion.

Speaker 5 (35:25):
The Purple Angels shout out to the Purple Angels, so
we this is for LSILOPS Society of Illinois.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Shout out to the Purple Angels. Tone if you can,
please drop that in the chat. Whether we got whoever
around the world. They can pick and choose what support
some group they want to go to. So we're gonna
have that in the comments in the chat below. If
you guys want to visit a support group, and if

(35:54):
you not want a support group or you're thinking about it,
just do it. See how you like it. You can
always not go, or go or just shop around. But
the first thing to do is is try it. So yeah,
thanks for much. I'm sorry, Levita, Lord Jesus.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
It's fine. Yes, so ELSI.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
I'm a support group leader for LSI and I run
the support group out of Zion, Illinois and it's at
my church at the in the basement at my church
at twelve twenty Lore Life Drive and Zion, Illinois. And
it's once a month on a Monday, the first Monday
of every month at six thirty.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
We have a support group of my support group is
called Purple Angel.

Speaker 5 (36:35):
So if anybody you know wants to come out as
hard you know you when you talk to people, anybody
can come. And you don't have to have you don't
have to have a faith background, you don't have to
if you have pain, anybody can come because this is
where you can talk and people support you. And and

(36:55):
and I'm not I'm not trying to I'm not throwing
religion down in your throat.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
I'm not doing none of that. This is about helping
you deal with your pain, helping you maneuver.

Speaker 5 (37:06):
Know somebody who knows what you're going through, that you
can talk to a group of people that's going through
the same thing that you're going through.

Speaker 3 (37:13):
Because we need that.

Speaker 5 (37:14):
We need that support like we have our sorority sisters,
you know, we need that support group. We need that
sisterly sisterhood for people that have lupus. That's why go
do the walks, because people are of like mind that
know what you're going through and you can relate to
because everybody can't relate to us that have lupus. Everybody

(37:35):
don't understand what we're going through. Everybody don't understand why
Earlier the day you looked like you was fine and
then ten minutes later, you look like you're about to
fall out.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
People don't understand that. They don't get it.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
It can be any auto mun It started because of lupas,
but it can be any autoimmune and any type of pain.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
Yes, And is this only for women? And if men
want to join? Could they join?

Speaker 3 (38:01):
For men and women lucas?

Speaker 5 (38:03):
If you have a chronic pain, come to my support group,
come to my support group. I'm writing zion is you
know it's not. It's not hard to find right off
the Laura Light Drive, so.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
You know it.

Speaker 4 (38:19):
I encourage people to come down one of these days
to we're gonna talk bad. I have to come down
one of these days. And if they couldn't make it right?
Is it a zoom option?

Speaker 5 (38:34):
So I don't have zoom option now, but I know
that Miil Lashan was talking about getting me on a
doing a zoom with me because sometimes people come and
sometimes people don't come. Sometimes I get one person, sometimes
I get zero people. But I'm there faithfully. So every
first of the month, on the first Monday.

Speaker 3 (38:52):
Of the month, I am there at six point thirty
whether somebody come or they don't come. I want to
be there in case somebody needs to come.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
So for sure, I can't wait till you get a
zoom that all brightened up, the brought up. So yeah, okay,
thank you for that piece of information. What support system
have you found most helpful and how did you build them?

Speaker 3 (39:20):
You know what through walks.

Speaker 5 (39:25):
I was going to slopis support groups in Chicago, LSI
support group meetings. That's how I'm Mela Sean going going
to our sorority, our Loop of Gamma Pyro Sorority Incorporated.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
You you need again, you need that support you need.
You need people that know what you're going through.

Speaker 5 (39:49):
Facebook. Facebook got a lot of support groups on there.
Lupis has no face support groups you had. There's a
lot of support groups out here that is that is
willing to understand what you're going through and it's willing
to help me have your back, whether you need a prayer,
whether you need somebody talk to just tell him about

(40:09):
what you're going through.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
Because a lot of times our spouses don't understand I
was married.

Speaker 5 (40:13):
He didn't understand, he didn't get me, he didn't understand
he wanted the same Levita he met before Lucas. He
wanted that Lebda that wasn't tired and weaken. He wanted
that Lebda, that that Lebda wasn't no more.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
So you know, to touch on that, How did that
make you feel? Just just a little bit, to touch it,
just a little bit on that. How do I make
you feel?

Speaker 3 (40:35):
It makes you It hurts your feelings when you can't.
So I grieved my old life. So it's like my
old life was dead and I grieved my old I
grieved me working and I it was a it was
I grieved my old life, my old self, and I
had to learn with Guy's help and healing me, healing

(40:57):
my heart. He had to help and heal me, and
he's still healing me.

Speaker 5 (41:02):
I'm still going through healing right now, and he's delivering
me from from myself because you know, you think about, man,
I want to do this, and my my mind have
so many ideas the things that I want to do,
and then you then you get this limitation where okay,
you want to do it. Then your brain you get
the brain fog, and then you can't you know, you

(41:23):
can't think, and then you know, you things that I
want to do and I and even with my grandkids.
There's so much that I want to do with them.
I can't do everything I want to do with them.
I do some things with them because I do a
lot with them, but the things that I really want
to just do with them, like I did with my
boys when they were youngest, I can't do everything because
I have these limitations with this, with these chronic pains

(41:47):
and things.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
And that's okay, And that's okay, that is totally okay. Yeah,
And you know, it's so funny that you said greave
your own life just just a little bit our. I
was thinking, you know, going through what I'm going through
with my mom, I wanted to do a panel of grieving,

(42:10):
but it wasn't just a loss of life. It was
a loss of something. But when I was thinking this thought,
I never heard anyone speak of a grieving process of
a loss of something instead of a life. And the
fact that you said that, I don't I don't know
if I want to say valide or anything like that,
but it makes me even want to do even more,

(42:31):
because you know, people just don't.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Grieve over a loss of a person. People grieve different things.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
And the fact that you said that, I'm just like,
this is exactly what I was talking about, and it
was the ideal of it is to justs have people
they different opinions, different thoughts and things of that nature.
Grieving on something and like I said, it doesn't have
to be a loss of someone. And what that looks
like and how did you get through it? Did you
ever get through it? Are you continuing?

Speaker 4 (42:56):
Do you relax? Things of that nature? So that's that
said that.

Speaker 5 (43:06):
You wish you you had your I wish I was
that same person I was before, Like I had that
my energy in mine and I can do like I.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Lost a lot of friends, Like I've lost a lot
of friends.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
You know, because I'm I couldn't go to the mall
and go shopping and then shop till you drop, because
I got tired just looking at.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
The mall, sending in the car like do I really
want to go in there? You know, I couldn't go out,
you know, I was canceling lunch dates and canceling.

Speaker 5 (43:36):
You know, I couldn't go out and I couldn't do things,
and people were getting upset with me because they didn't understand.
They just thought, oh, I was trying to blow people off.
But I'm not trying to blow you off. I didn't
got I'm in.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Pain right now.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
Yes, earlier I was like, yes, let's do this, and
then later on like when it's time to do it,
I'm in pain or I can't do it or whatever
the case may be.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
Or I'm in the hospital. Oh you in the hospital again. Yeah, people,
I said you sick to be being sick. I'm sicking,
be being sick. You ain't us being sick too.

Speaker 5 (44:10):
I got with this, you know what I'm saying. So
it's just so you you I really again, that's that's
the word. I grieve, you know, I grieve the loss
of my myf the life I have.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
But God knows best.

Speaker 2 (44:27):
Yeah, I was just gonna say, you didn't lose anything
at all. Relationships that end, it's not a loss. Is
those mind more minded people that don't understand and that
that don't want to do the leg word to educate
themselves on their own of what Luis looks like or
how can it affect people? Because we can tell you

(44:48):
all day, right, but sometimes people learn different ways. So
sometimes people need to read you know what I mean,
or be educated or whatever the case may be. In
the way that they understand. But I've also I feel
like people that are your friends and that are your
family members, if they really care for you the way
that they say that they care for you, they would
have took it upon themselves to educate themselves to see

(45:10):
how to be there and to understand since they couldn't
understand how you look versus what you say.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
And I could count those people like this, I could count.

Speaker 5 (45:23):
Those are the people that understand from me being friends
with everybody and and doing things for everybody.

Speaker 3 (45:33):
You know, I couldn't do things for everybody anymore.

Speaker 5 (45:35):
I couldn't be that person that was doing this and
doing that and planning this and doing this for everybody.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
I couldn't do it no more.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
And then they had to be like, no, how do
you stay motivated and maintain a positive mindset despite the
ups and downs?

Speaker 4 (45:55):
Oh my goodness, I got kids.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
I got my daughter. That is motivation. My daughter, My
daughter I.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
A lot her and her pageants and everything.

Speaker 5 (46:08):
My daughter keeps me motivated. And now that I have
my grandbabies, that's what. And I was just telling me
and Lashan was out with the kids last Saturday. We
were out with the kids.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
We took them. We went to Lego Land and we
went to the movies or whatever, and.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
I was just thinking, like, you know, I'm tired, but
you know what, we got these grand babies.

Speaker 3 (46:33):
They motive.

Speaker 5 (46:33):
They keep you motivated, They keep us, they keep me motivated.
I don't want to be sick. I don't want to
be in the hospital when somebody else got to take
care of them because I'm broke down or something. So
I try to monitor what I'm doing and make sure
I don't get to where it's a bad fo But
sometimes we can't control it, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
The Flayer is gonna come. It's gonna come. You know,
we can't. We ain't nothing we can control.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
But in my mind, in my mind, I'm trying to
control what I do and how much I'm doing and
stuff like that on my end and try to keep
myself a little bit more healthier to keep up with
them because they don't want to see their grandma sick
or land or they don't understand why Grandma's always laying
in the bed or you know, I mean, they come
and get in the bed with me all the time,

(47:17):
but they don't Land like, you know, grandma.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
You always in the bed, you know.

Speaker 4 (47:23):
For sure. So that is definitely something to keep you motivated.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
Yeah, what advice would you give to others who are
newly dynosed or struggling with chronic illness?

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Be your own advocate.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
Learn they don't have a voice, right, They need somebody
who have a voice for them. That could be your mama,
your your husband with your grown kid. Somebody needs to
have a voice for you don't have a voice, somebody
need to be there a voice for you. When I
couldn't talk and I was turning gray, my friend came

(48:02):
up in there, all up in the hospital. She came
up in there and was like, what is God?

Speaker 3 (48:08):
Why is she gray? Why is she looking like like?
She came in there.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
So I didn't have a voice because I couldn't say
that because they kept like. She was like, I don't
give her no more of that medicine. That medicine no
like something that you know, something ain't right. So when
I couldn't speak for myself, So you need to have
somebody that can advocate for you, or you stand up
for yourself and be your own advocate. You gotta know
you research your disease, research, research, research. I can't tell

(48:36):
you enough about researching.

Speaker 2 (48:39):
For we read about everything else is good research what
you are going through, what you are dealing with, and
to always understand what your thought process is and how
you feel it is okay because those are your thoughts. Yes,
nobody can tell you different. Yes, And to you, guys,

(48:59):
I did just re least a book. It's out on
Amazon or www. Dot lupas has no face dot com
for those who are newly dynosed. But you don't have
to just be newly dianosed. You can just have lupus
for twenty eight years and that that book will talk
to you. And it's a journal. There you go, that's

(49:19):
right there, that is available on Amazon and on the website.
Why you got it up will beata? What is your
thought process? How did the book help you? Or if
it didn't or if it did the pros and know.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
What it has a lot of it has.

Speaker 5 (49:33):
It's a planner, and it has a lot of lots
of quotes and thoughts in here, so a lot of
self care.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
I like this book. I like this book. So this
is on my night's there right by.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
My bed, Thank you God. That's so that's so sweet.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
That is it right there?

Speaker 2 (49:51):
You guys, get your copy, buy it from somewhere for
someone else. As you heard for the first time a
lote she thinks it's a great book. I think it's
an awesome one. You get it and you tell me
what you think.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Yes, it's an awesome but y'all need to get the book.
It's an awesome book.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
What role does community and advocacy play in your life
and for others with similar conditions, being that you have
multiple so.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
Right now, let's talk about community.

Speaker 5 (50:26):
So right now, I am partners with Tamika Ranston and
Lashawn Garola and we are we have a investment business
was called wife b W I f FI Women Investing
for Financial Independence. We all have loopus, we all have lupus,

(50:47):
and we are flipping houses. Y'all, we are flipping houses.
We are on our third house. We are flipping houses.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
Do you hear.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
The day I didn't know anything about it, I was
to do it.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
I was.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
I was trembling because I knew nothing about it. But
you know what, I stepped out on faith. I said,
God show me everything, this is good. Do it because
I had to pray on it because I was I
was I was really scared about stepping out there trying
to learn how to flip houses and things like that.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
But you know what, three women with lupus, we are
doing this. We are doing this. Do you hear me?

Speaker 4 (51:28):
I seen y'allie, y'all heard them hat saying y'all gear.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
I'm like, why is.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
We were doing this?

Speaker 5 (51:36):
And it feels good to say that because we're not
doing it just for us. Because once we're we learned
how to get the patterns and get it together, We're
gonna pull the next women with lupus so they can
do it, and the next women with lupus and the
next because we want to teach and we want to

(51:57):
show because.

Speaker 3 (51:58):
A lot of women are.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
Because ninety percent of what people with loops are women,
and a lot of these women on disability, they don't
have jobs and things like that, and you need some
type of another income, You need something because.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
We can't live on disability.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
You can't live like that.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
You cannot live on disability. It's just the economy today
is hard. You can't just live on disability. And if
you are, I commend you. I can't live on disability alone.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
It's not enough. I'll be doing too much. I like
to eat out. Just tell you a little greedy.

Speaker 5 (52:43):
So but this group, our wife beat group and is
helping women help me a lot. I'm learning a lot.
We are going to reach back, pull up women, help them,
the women to learn how to make another income, a

(53:03):
supplemental another income.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Don't get too much away because I got all y'all
coming back on this show. Okay, so take that be
looking out because they gonna come with some jewels.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
And how to do it. Get in contact with. So yeah,
make sure.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Y'all stay tuned. Okay, we gotta let that. Let that
marinate because we bring y'all back.

Speaker 5 (53:28):
But the community, I also I also do with my church.
We feed the homeless. Once a month. We do I
make tex lunches. We make forty lunches and we take
them down to paths in Illinois pass and walking again
we take them. I just and I did that today.
So I'm exhausted because I mean, forty lunches today. We
did I did that today.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
We do it once a month.

Speaker 5 (53:49):
It's normally the last I try to do it the
last Tuesday of the month. That's my goal. I do
to keep it consistent. So like the last Tuesday of
the month we do pads, So we make forty launches.
We take them down there every last Tuesday and a month,
and it's from our outreach that we do at our church.
We do other stuff too, but right there, that's something

(54:11):
that I'm passionate about feeding the homeless. I have family
members that was homeless. I have family members that used
pads before. So I am very passionate about making sure
the them, babies and the women and the men pads
are getting a meal because sometimes they don't.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
And I'm real big about that.

Speaker 4 (54:35):
Do pads stand for something or it's just.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Yes, it does?

Speaker 3 (54:40):
And I can't tell you what to stand for right now?
I ads, and do stand for something?

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Where can that.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
You are? Right?

Speaker 4 (54:57):
Where can I find you at?

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Like?

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Do you got to be?

Speaker 4 (55:01):
I can't to stand for?

Speaker 3 (55:03):
But to do stand?

Speaker 4 (55:05):
We're gonna find that out. Do I need to google it?

Speaker 3 (55:08):
So I don't know if you have to, we don't.
I don't know if you have to be a resident
of Illinois.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
But I know that they take it. They feed, They
feed the homeless, and they shelter. Sometimes they shelter like
women and child, women and children. I think sometimes they
house men they're too. I'm not too fail how they
do the men or whatever, but know they they get
like hotel rooms and stuff for them and things like

(55:34):
that when they're when they're home, especially like.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
In the winter. I think in the summertime or as as.
I don't think they have as much funding.

Speaker 5 (55:45):
But if we don't bring the lunch, so then those
people don't eat that, they don't have that lunch set.
So I'm particular making sure that we we get our
past lunches there.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
So I don't know if this is the right one.
So it's pads p O D S. Right, that's how
you spell it.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
P A P A.

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Hold on p A D S Illinois, Illinois.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
Mhm.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Okay, let's see what it's saying, Public Action to Deliver Shelter.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
There you go, that's it.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Okay, y'all. Hey, we're gonna find it.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
And the.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
Action to Deliver Shelter.

Speaker 5 (56:44):
You could also if you want to help out, you
can also donate to Spirit of Life Pentecostal Church in Zion.
They have a Facebook page you could donate. They have
a Facebook page where there's a link where you can
make a donation. It has pads on there. When you
click down a drop down box.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
It has paths.

Speaker 5 (57:05):
If you want to donate to pass, you can put
it on there and donate and that'll help us make lunches.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
And you know, we're just can you say where they
can go donate slower, like the website or the name
so they can google it.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
So we have a Facebook page.

Speaker 5 (57:21):
It's called Spirit of Life Pentecostal Church in Zion, Illinois.
It's at twelve twenty two Loren Drive in Zion, Illinois.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
So that is on the Facebook.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
On the Facebook page, it says forgiving or thanks for
giving or something something about giving. I can't remember, but
it's like it's like a black and gold or something
forgiving and you click on there and then you can give.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
On the dropdown box it says pads. You can push
paths and you can give for pads if you like
to donate.

Speaker 4 (58:02):
Y'all heard her.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
I got something friends, fifty said a dollar in all
adds up. I have thousands of das all that, So
y'all go ahead, and if you can't remember that, please
just come back to the YouTube. You can replay it
on the Youtubelopis has no face, and just listen to
what she said. And or or comment and we'll respond

(58:24):
back to you. Okay, thank you so much for that.
How do you handle days when you're feeling unwilling to
do things? What are your go to strategies?

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Gospel music? I turn on gospel music that that is
my motivation.

Speaker 5 (58:49):
And some and you know, sometimes I can't even open
my mouth to pray because you get sometimes you get
stuck or you can't even you don't even feel like
opening your.

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Mouth to pray.

Speaker 4 (58:59):
Felt that people are.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Sometimes you feel stuck and you can't open your mouth.

Speaker 5 (59:04):
But you know what you turn on, turn on the
gospel music, turn on them and let it penetrate and
penetrate your soul. Just let it penetrate, just let it play,
and then you you you it'll break, It'll break itself
off of you, It'll break it up, and then you
can be like, Okay, Jesus work with me. Okay, Lord,
I can pray now, because sometimes I get in that place.
I'm not always the prayer worry.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
Sometimes I get in that place where I'm stuck and
I can't open my mouth or it's just so much.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
Heaviness on me that you can't even you can't even talk,
like you can't even begin to say anything or pray,
and I have to turn on that.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
I have to turn on gospel.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
Now.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
I ain't talking about all that. Whatever gospel, it's gonna
get you.

Speaker 5 (59:45):
Together, because it's certain people that get me together, like
tashak cc wyan is. It's people that could get me together.
Some people they might need the other type. I don't know,
but I know I need some and rooted you know,
and that old time, old school gospel get me together
real quick. So you know it's that, And I maintain

(01:00:09):
on that and I listened to it and I'll play
it throughout the house and I keep it on until
its till like it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
Till it gets in my soul.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
I have to agree with you on that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:22):
Like that's almost for anything with me, Like if I
get too overwhelmed, I gotta listen to certain songs or
just songs of gospel that have put me back in
a better space, because that definitely does penetrate your h
through your spirit to your soul, and it always works
for me.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
It works.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
I know that the the deeper pain is the longer
I have to listen to it versus the light the
shorter amount. So just listen to your body. Your body
is definitely gonna tell you how long you need to
do anything in life.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
That's that medicine and music that La Sean and.

Speaker 5 (01:01:06):
Who, Yes, they did a medicine the music thing, and
they did a gospel I mean not gospel, a jazz concert.
You came to jazz concert, beautiful jazz concert for lupus.
A lupus jazz concert was wonderful in Chicago. And that

(01:01:26):
was also been It was called about medicine and music
and how the music just it just does something to
your soul. You know, it just it does you know
what I mean for me and for me it's gospel.
For me, it's the gospel music. I mean, other people,
it could be R and B. It could be jazz,
it could be whatever. It could be country, it could
be whatever music, opera. I don't know, but but find

(01:01:50):
what it is that will help you get get yourself
together to to bring you back, to bring you back,
because loopers could take us places.

Speaker 3 (01:02:02):
We don't want to go.

Speaker 5 (01:02:03):
It could take our mind places we don't want to be.
And that you know, and to me, that's I'm gonna say,
it's the devil or playing in our heads, playing in
our minds.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
It was spur in our ear. You ain't gonna never
get better. You ain't gonna know I am gonna get better.
I am, and I have to.

Speaker 5 (01:02:20):
I have to keep telling myself that, no matter how
I feel, no matter how my body feels, know how
to I'm not going to cave into the self talk,
the self doubt or talking telling myself that I'm not
going to be free of.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
This, because I am going to be and I know,
I know I got a guy who can, so.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
For sure, it definitely can happen. Anything is absolutely possible.
Anything is absolutely possible. And thank you for bringing up
You brought up music in medicine. We did an episode
Mandalanda and then episode on music and loops. So check
that episode out. Just go to the YouTube and you
will see it. Check it out. I want to know
what you guys think. And last, but not least, what

(01:03:07):
message would you like to share with those listening who
may be struggling with their own health battles.

Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
You're gonna have rough days? Yeah, sure, we're gonna have
rough days.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
I'm not here to say rough days ain't gonna happen,
because rough days will happen. It's how you deal with it.
It's how you cope with it. Get you some coping
skills to deal with those loopers rough days. When I
first started, I didn't have coping skills. I was going crazy.
I was screaming the hollering at everybody because I didn't
understand what was going on with me and my body

(01:03:46):
and why I'm in all this pain and why I
feel like I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:03:48):
Dying, and nobody had an answer.

Speaker 5 (01:03:51):
So try to find some coping skills, especially if you
newly diagnosed. Get you a support system. Find your support system,
whether it's a Facebook support system, whether.

Speaker 3 (01:04:02):
It is, and it's positive.

Speaker 5 (01:04:04):
People don't don't get on those support system. They whining
all the time and they ain't uplifting and they ain't
trying to do nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
We used to.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
Work group that's gonna uplift you. Like you can't do it,
go do it. Put you on my answer, you can
do it. I was gonna be able to gim my masters.

Speaker 5 (01:04:25):
Look at me three classes away and I will be
done with my master's degree. Thinking about going ahead and
going to do to the doctor's program.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
So shot, not everybody want to do the doctor. I said,
I'm doing herd.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
That so let no.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
Don't let your pain determine who you are. You are
not your pain.

Speaker 5 (01:04:51):
Don't let the pain run your life, because because I could,
I could testify the pain used to run me. It
used to run my life because I didn't know how
to cope and I didn't know how to deal with it,
and it was running my life.

Speaker 3 (01:05:05):
You cannot let that happen to you.

Speaker 5 (01:05:07):
Find your support group system by the support group find
look at Gamma py Ro, Lupis Sorority Incorporated.

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
You can go on here.

Speaker 5 (01:05:17):
Lupis has no face. Great support system here. You can
go to LSI, Lupus Society of Illinois. Great support groups there.
They got support groups all over Chicago, Land. Look look
for one of them. Lupa's Foundation of America LFA. They
have great support groups. Find your support group call me,

(01:05:38):
look me up on Facebook.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
Levita LaVita God's Girl.

Speaker 5 (01:05:44):
William Brown Williams is on Facebook. So again, LaVita, God's
Girl Brown Williams.

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
I'll talk to you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
Call me.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
I don't have no problem with talking you through and
talking you through what you're going through. Everybody needs somebody
who understands. Find you that support and don't let anybody
try to tell you. You're not gonna get better or
your or this is fate on your that's it. Because

(01:06:12):
even though there's no cure for this, even though there's
stories of people who have died from this, you are
still alive on today. That means you have another day
to get it right, to get to get yourself right.
You have another day. Don't let nobody put that nonsense

(01:06:33):
in your head. You have to know, find your support group.
That's that's my thing. Support get you a church family,
my church family. I love my church family.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
They love me.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
I love them. I love my church family. They very
supportive that I was in there the other day.

Speaker 5 (01:06:53):
She one of the sisters was like, you look like
you don't feel good like and I don't, but she
knew just by looking at me. I just say nothing.
I just was coming to church. I wasn't feeling well.
I pushed my way through to go to church.

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
But she knew.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
So you got you gotta genuine love people that genuinely
gonna love you.

Speaker 4 (01:07:23):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
For sure, genuine people are gonna be actively paying attention
to you.

Speaker 4 (01:07:30):
That is so dope.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Support is support is everything. The correct support is everything.
And I love how you said. None of that whine
and because thank you for being so honest and true
with that, cause why it is, I ain't gonna get
you nowhere.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
We're trying to figure out how can we get through this?
What can we do about it? What can we try?
Where can we go? You know, we don't want to
hear about you being in painting all that? Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
And now what you know what I'm saying, because that's
not support. It's a time to vent, right but not
for too long. Supporter is going to tell you some
things that you don't want to hear because it should
be authentic and raw and being in those uncomfortable situations,
you should be able to receive that what understanding because

(01:08:19):
that's that's coming out of care and out of love
for somebody to pour into you in those type of ways.
So you got to be uncomfortable to be to be
able to grow. And it's okay that you didn't know
for twenty eight years, but now you know today we
don't want to know. You know, it didn't work for
twenty eight years. We understand that we're trying to tell
you something that we know that works and it could

(01:08:40):
possibly work for you, you know, or we can try
something different. But you got to be willing to be open.
You got to be willing to try, and you got
to do the legwork yourself because you're not just gonna
wake up one day being remission and just feel better.
You got to change your eating habits, you know, your
sleep habits. You know, faith is very, very, very big.
You got to protect yourself when you are on the
sub you gotta if you're on a med regiment, you

(01:09:02):
gotta take your meds properly the right way. If you
aren't holistic, you gotta do it the right way. You know,
you gotta work out even though you are paying so
support is it's definitely a great thing, but you you
have to be well to put in the work as well.

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
So thank you so much for that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
Listen, Levita, because a lot of these support groups is
not raw and authentic, and you gotta be raw and
authentic because that's that's what we are and need. We
need raw and authentic so we can know what's the
next steps that we can take in order to start
living well with loop IS. I do offer classes they
are on my website as well, how to accept what

(01:09:40):
you have so you can start living well with loops
how to take care of your hair if you lost
your hair, how to start growing it back even though
the doctors told you that they won't grow back. I
am one of those people that they told that my
hair wouldn't grow back, and I have will full hell
here now.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
How to get some good wigs.

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
That your hair can still bre if you know you
feel like your identity been snatched away from you because
your hair is gone, your skined regiments, which you can
how you can apply makeup on a lesion if you
don't feel so pretty, and also how to treat that
legion as well. So it's classes that I offer that's
on the website, that's available virtual and in person. So
you may want to take a look on that and

(01:10:19):
the book again before we go, La Sean. I don't
know why I keep calling you La Shan. I call
it beat beating the Shan.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
I don't know why I do that because she's like girl,
I'm like, I don't understand. At this point, I don't
know what to do. Why I do that to y'all.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
You want to tell them what you're wearing, and we
have see it. I know what it is, but we
have said, what are you what a hair are you
wearing today?

Speaker 4 (01:10:48):
US has no face T shirt period.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
You can actually pursas that too on the website. They
are available all year around. What new that you have
coming up, Levina that you want us to attend to.
I know you talked us about the Purple Angels and
the donation UH to feed pads.

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
You got anything else that you are a part of
that's coming up?

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
So I'm doing I'm doing the there's a walk in September.
I don't even know the day off a hand. I
should have had that together, and it's LSI is having
their walk. So you can look on the Lupus Society
of Illinois. They're having a walk. There's a lot of
Loopus walks going on right now, so people having walked,
there's probably a walk in your town, in your area.

(01:11:40):
Dominate to the walk and go to the walk and
support and support yourself at the walk.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
Go to the walk because you have lupus. You don't
have to walk the whole thing. Walk a little bit
or just go and show up.

Speaker 5 (01:11:51):
You ain't even gotta walk to show up in fellowship
with the with the people who have loopus or the
people that have the same thing that you have. And
and meet new people. That that is always wonderful to
meet new people. We go to DC every year for
a Lupus Foundation of America and we need to meet
new people. We need new people every time we go.

(01:12:11):
I mean, somebody knew all the time it's it's and
it's it's a network. So yeah, I can't remember what
I know that there's the Lside Walk in September, and
I can't remember what the date is.

Speaker 2 (01:12:25):
Once I find that out, I will put it in
a chat on here. I'll find it out today. I
can put it in a chat and then let you
guys know when the walk. But if you can't, if
you don't know when, or you don't see it and
you don't want to read because a lot of people
don't like three, go to the website that she just
told you, and you know, go find it and you don't.
You don't have to have lucas right. You can go

(01:12:45):
towards brand, you can have Rheumatory writing is probabiologies any illness.
Just go so you can understand Brian, your horizons, understand.

Speaker 4 (01:12:54):
You know for what you don't know. You don't know
what you needed to you get what you what you
thought you didn't need, so just go, just go show up.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
Look at it as an exercise regimen that you need
to incorporate in your daily life. Start with a walk
and even go do the treadmill, or start having a
five mile walk or two mile or one mile in
your neighborhood or at a trailer or something.

Speaker 4 (01:13:15):
It's going to be beneficial to you some way, shape
or form.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
Yes, So I do want to thank you so much
for coming on taking out the time at your business
schedule because you are a busy lately.

Speaker 4 (01:13:27):
A great appreciate.

Speaker 3 (01:13:30):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (01:13:33):
I can't wait.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Remember you guys got to get back with me on
when all three of you guys going to be available.
She gotta do her one on one two, But I'll
bring all three you guys back so we can educate
our fellow warriors, anybody with indivisibal illnesses, on how to
make some extra cash right and being a boss while
doing so. So I applaud you guys on that you

(01:13:56):
already know. We are here every Wednesday at six thirty
or on all platforms.

Speaker 4 (01:14:01):
You can catch us live on Facebook.

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
If you do or did miss it, you can replay
it on the YouTube Lupus has no Face podcast on
YouTube comment I'll respond back. Let us know what you
think with topics you want to see us discussed in
their future. Until next time, See you later, Lasha le Vita,
do not get off here, but see you next Ti