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Living With Lupus
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Local author shares
her tips for dealing
with this painful
autoimmune disease.

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cannot control what I have. I can
only control how I think about what
I have.”
These words became Donna Oram’s
mantra when she made a conscious
decision to live her life as positively as
possible after being diagnosed with
the chronic autoimmune disease, sys-
temic lupus erythematosus (lupus).
Oram was diagnosed at age 46
while earning a master’s degree in
social work. Upon graduation, she
worked for more than 24 years as a
medical social worker for Providence
Hospital in Southfield. For 22 of those
years, using her training as a social
worker and her personal experience
with lupus, she volunteered and later
worked in the lupus community and
for the Michigan Lupus Foundation.
Oram appeared at many health
and educational events throughout
Michigan focusing her presentations
on the emotionality of lupus. She
spoke with hundreds of lupus patients
and their families, helping them
develop coping skills needed to live a
full life. She also focused on ways to
live with the unpredictability of the
disease and examined ways to reduce
stress, emphasizing that accept-
ing lupus was a lengthy process but
doable, and that no two people dis-
played lupus symptoms the same way.
This February, she published a book
called When Lupus Throws You for A
Loop, available at Amazon, and she
continues to help those who share her
diagnosis.
According to the Lupus Foundation
of America, about 1.5 million people
in the U.S. have lupus. Those of
African, Asian and Native American
descent are more likely to develop the
disease than Caucasians. Although
it occurs in both men and women,
90 percent of people diagnosed with
lupus are women, most frequently in
the childbearing ages of 14 to 45.
“Lupus is not a rare disease, but
few are aware that this inflammatory,
autoimmune, lifelong disease causes
the body to attack its own healthy
tissues,” says Dr. Larry Silverman, a
Farmington Hills rheumatologist.
“The skin, kidneys, lungs, heart and

continued on page 36

34

June 29 • 2017

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