An Introduction...

Hello, I am Wendy Ward and I am 39 years old, I am married and I have 2 children who are 8 and 4, a cat who is about 13 (lost count years ago) and I have Hughes Syndrome...

I wanted to write about having this condition, not to gain sympathy, but really to give people or the families of other sufferers an insight into how a Hughes sufferer feels and to give them a real understanding of how this dreadful disease can make someone feel. I also wanted to get a lot of things off my chest about my journey of diagnosis, about how it makes me feel as a mum, a wife and a person, about how I am judged and about how this awful condition affects everything that I do.

I have been diagnosed with having other auto-immune condition symptoms also, which include Lupus, Sjorgrens Syndrome and Raynaulds Syndrome. They are all connective tissue disorders, which are dealt with by a Rheumatologist.

I am lucky in that I have not had a stroke, heart attack or pulmonary embolism yet... these are what can happen to someone with Hughes Syndrome or to give it it's proper name - Antiphospholipid Syndrome. It is also shortened to APS, APLS or Sticky Blood! With so many names for the same condition, it is no wonder that it is sometimes difficult to get a diagnosis!

I am not a doctor and I am not here to guess about the medical aspects of having this condition, all I can do is give you my account of how the condition makes me feel and how I chug along life with the condition, knowing that there is no cure, that I am taking my medication and I have to just get on with it....

I have posted links to a couple of very good sites that you may want to visit for more information regarding the medical side and what support is available, for now... please keep reading as I get together relevant information and post about how things are going... thanks for reading.