Role of Resilience, Family and Support Groups in Sequential Diagnosis of SLE-A: A Self-Reported Case Study

Abstract

Systemic Lupus Erythematous (SLE) poses a significant challenge in diagnosis, particularly when the condition exhibits other rheumatological disorders and thus cannot be diagnosed succinctly due to its multisystem involvement of medical professionals and the clinical presentation of the symptoms overlapping with other autoimmune conditions, specifically rheumatological and pain-related conditions/disorders. This self-reported case study presents a case of a woman in her late twenties in Pakistan, aiming to describe her diagnostic journey, who had been having a misdiagnosis of psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia 12-15 months prior to being diagnosed with SLE. This case study highlights the complexity of diagnosing autoimmune diseases, the frequent occurrence of referred autoimmune overlap syndromes, and the inevitable challenges of working with female patients in resource-limited health care facilities, especially when the symptoms of the illness may overlap with psychological ones and gender-related diagnostic bias. The delay in the diagnosis was associated with substantial difficulties that she had gone through during the delay and the psychological impact/distress, systematic complications, and the process of 12-15 visits to different physicians in different areas of specialty, spent a lot of money, and reached the limits of educational and psychological health before finding the clarity of diagnosis with tenacious advocacy and complete immunological testing. Beyond the trajectories of the health care system, this case study also aims to illustrate the processes of grief and trauma associated with chronic autoimmune conditions and the processes of resilience.