Hi New here

im from New Zealand i have had diabetes for 15 years now went to the doctors 2 months ago because i woke up one morning with swelling by my ears and was painful and an swollen ankle thought they were related but aren't the ankle was part of my sprain ankle i did 5 months ago today still healing from it

went to the doctors 6 times in two weeks for the bumps they were changing all the time my mouth was dry (thought it was Diabetic Symptom) but it turned out it wasn't it was part of SS my eyes were dry and itchie and i was in pain doc didn't know what to do but gave me antibiotics to see if it helped it didn't do anything but made them hard and really sore Went to the doc on a friday afternoon another lump came up and could feel more in my cheeks she rang the ent ( Ears nose and Throat guys) in wellington( an hour away from me and they said 9 am on Monday so went there last monday and he said i have sjogrens syndrome but a blood test will com firm it it will take 10 days come back on thursday week and we will have a result for u so i did the Thursday just been and was told that the blood work was a negative but i was a text book case only a few people who have SS doesn't show up with blood work but now i am having to be tested for h i v hep a b c and having a ultrasound and a needle biopsy lets hope its all negative for that i have 3 children 13 9 6 all boys and are a handful feel free to ask me questions if i can i will answer them

miss kiwi

Hi Miss Kiwi! If you want to get in touch with other NZ members, you can do an advanced search thro' the members page- click on the members tab on the top menu bar, then put NZ in the box, click on 'advanced search'. It sends you to the page like you have to enter your details in to join- ignore all the questions except for country, and put NZ in, then click on the tab at the end, and there's a few on here. You can also join a group too- from the tab on the top menu bar again- there's one for parents with SS, so you could make contact with other Mums too. It must be hard with 3 boys- I have 2 teenage boys myself, very lively! Are you finding you get very tired? Do you have help from family etc.?

Hi Jules thanks for that i will and i have been starting to get tired very easily like cooking i need a rest afterwards and taking kids to school i need a snooze in the afternoon even though i haven't done much been going to bed about 6 and 8.30 is my latest bed time i cant keep my eyes open thought it was due to a few days before period because that's normal for me but all the time now