“My life suddenly changed when I was diagnosed with lupus nephritis in 2008, when I was just 10 years old. After that life was not easy & carefree like it used to be. In 2014 my kidneys got affected & my life turned upside down. There were so many complications. I suffered body pains, my hands used to tremble, I couldn’t sit for long. Energy levels were so low. I had to sacrifice my dreams due to this.”

Devanshi came to me because her parents were very worried about their 20 year old daughter’s decline in health. Devanshi was diagnosed with lupus in 2008, which deteriorated into lupus nephritis in nine years of management of the disease by medications. On September 10, 2017 I received this email from the Devanshi’s father:

Mam,
My daughter is suffering from Lupus since 2008, at that time she was given 5 shots of prednisole of 1 gram each. After 3 years of wysolone course she remained for 3 years without wysolone on HCQS and Ecosprin.

She again relapsed in Jan 2014. At that time they started 30 mg of wysolone but it was controlled, in Feb 2015 her kidney got affected and she was given 5 shots of prednisole and 6 shots of Endoxan ( cyclophosphamide) of 1 gm each and 5 shots of leuprolide 3.75 mg. Her renal biopsy was done and she was classified as 4 class. Now she is lupus nephritis class 4. Since then she is on wysolone, envas, mmf hcqs.

I have treated lupus before successfully. However, this was chronic lupus nephritis and kidneys were affected so I did not want to give false hopes to the father. I wanted to help her, she was so young, but I also needed the parents to have the correct picture. So I wrote to her father:

Dear Sanjay,

Many thanks for your email regarding your daughter. While I have had a very high success rate with other autoimmune conditions including lupus, I have had a mixed response in treatment for lupus nephritis. The moment there is kidney damage, the body starts reacting unpredictably. Hence, while I am torn to help you, I am myself not sure of the outcome due to the kidneys being affected.

If you feel you would still like to move ahead, we can. Do let me know, and my love & blessings for her always.

Devanshi’s father  immediately responded:

Mam,
I am very much obliged. You are telling us about mixed results and I appreciate that you are interested in helping us out. Seeing your clear intentions of helping my daughter, I am interested in your advice and I hope God will also help us in achieving the desired results which you and I cherish.

Thanks.

And so, with a prayer in our hearts, I requested for the blood tests I needed and in October 2017 we began the Devanshi’s treatment.

Devanshi  didn’t like anything that I gave her. In our first Skype, she was unwilling to talk to me. She was in any case not keeping well, not being able to live the normal life of a 20 year old girl in a large city with opportunities of enjoyment in every corner, and here she was stuck between doctors, toxic medications, a low quality of life, fluctuating blood tests, and most importantly, no hope for any future improvement. On top of all this, I had descended into her life with restrictions, a palm full of supplements and a very tight schedule for food, nutrition and exercises. Anyone in her place would not have stuck on the way she did.

By the time we reached our third review, which is over a month after she began with me, I saw her smile at me with affection for the first time. She had begun accepting what I had prescribed grudgingly at first and then seen the effects on her energy levels and blood reports and started to follow more wholeheartedly with faith. For me, her faith in me was the turnaround I was looking for.

By January, Devanshi  was much better and when I last spoke to her, she was planning a trip to Goa with her college friends. I encouraged her to go because by now she had understood her lifestyle changes so beautifully that she was confident that she could enjoy herself in any part of the world and still choose the right foods and do the right things to stay on track. Seeing her improvement, I invited her to share her experience with everyone so that we can all get inspiration from this strong, determined 20 year  old girl who wants to live and not let her autoimmune disease bring her down. Here’s what Devanshi wrote

“I’m honoured to know that I can be an inspiration to others.  After so many years, my life took a turn in Oct 2017 & this time a positive change. You came into my life and a new chapter, a new journey started, a journey of better & healthy life. At first it was not easy at all. It was very difficult to change to your lifestyle. I used to cry a lot. I wanted to stop all this diet plan but I couldn’t make myself to do this because somewhere deep in my heart I believed that this was going to work. I was right . Today, my energy levels have gone up, my blood reports have improved. My winters had never been easy but this winter it was amazing as if there was never any problem. This was the first time blood reports took a turn for the better in the last so many years. Frankly, even now I sometimes feel frustrated and want to eat everything you have forbidden me to eat,  but when I look at the results in my life, energy and reports,  my frustration evaporates. Being a hardcore Punjabi, it was very difficult to change my lifestyle but mam with your guidance, diet schedule and supplements, I am able to lead a healthy, better, happy, & normal life today. Thanks to you. You yourself is a great inspiration to me & many others like me. And I hope that all those suffering from lupus nephritis like me, find the hope and a better life like I found.”

Devanshi has just been on my treatment for 4 months, so I know that she will improve every single day. We battle with autoimmune diseases every day, and some of us win. Like Devanshi did.