My Good Friend Melissa...

Talking about believing in yourself (previous post)..
If you have ever said to yourself any of the following

"I can't...
"It is beyond me"...
"I just won't be able to make it"...
Fot all the times you have said anything negative to yourself...

Please follow this link and read this amazing, inspiring story. After reading this story, there is absolutely NO REASON for you to say "I can't",
Yes you can!!!!!

http://www.xtri.com/features_display.aspx?riIDReport=5092&CAT=3&xref=xx

This is a very uplifting, motivating story about my good friend Melissa. She really is an amazing person, friend, mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, teacher, athlete. She has completed triathlons of varying lengths, she has trained hard for all of these events while working, while being a Mom.

So what is so special about that?

Melissa has managed to do all of these things while dealing with LUPUS. She could have chosen to lay in bed all day and suffer in silence. She could have chosen to just make it through the day. There are lots of choices she could have made. Melissa chose to not give up, to push forward, to continue on as though she did not have LUPUS.

If you are not familiar with LUPUS, it is an autoimmune disease that is different for each person that has it. There is no cure. There are medications to help with the symptoms.

Lupus is a chronic disease with a variety of symptoms caused by inflammation in one or more parts of the body. It is estimated that it affects more than 50,000 Canadians.

What causes lupus?

No one knows for sure. What we do know is that, in lupus, the immune system (the body's defense against viruses and bacteria) is unable to tell the difference between intruders and the body's own tissues. Trying to do its job, it attacks parts of the body, causing inflammation and creating the symptoms of lupus.

Because it occurs most often in women of childbearing age, it seems evident that there is a link between lupus and some hormones, but how this works remains uncertain. It also appears that inherited factors may make certain people more likely to develop lupus, but these also are not clear yet.

Until science fully understands how the immune system works, the specific cause of lupus remains unknown.

For more information please visit
www.lupuscanada.org