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When dairy farmer Brie Hyde began experiencing chronic fatigue and joint pain, doctors treated her for Lyme disease. After years of worsening symptoms, she was diagnosed with Lupus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
As a child, Brie Hyde dreamed of being a veterinarian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always been an outdoorsy person, very animal fascinated,\u201d she told Healthline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
While attending the University of Vermont, she fell in love with dairy farming and started her own farm in Connecticut in 2004.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI was a first-generation female farmer,\u201d she said. \u201cFarming is crazy active and very strenuous on your body and time, and that\u2019s what completed me. That\u2019s what makes me whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
However, early on during her farming days, she began experiencing intense hand pain that she initially attributed to the physical demands of her job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s pictures and videos and things that I look back at now, and I was constantly rubbing my hands,\u201d said Hyde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The pain eventually spread to her feet, ankles, knees, and hips, and during the summertime, she developed fevers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
At first, doctors attributed her symptoms to Lyme disease<\/a>, a bacterial infection transmitted from ticks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSo they\u2019d put me on prednisone and antibiotics, and 10 days on prednisone, you\u2019re feeling better. So then it would go away, and I would push through,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hyde\u2019s symptoms persisted and progressed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019d be in the shower, and my feet would be purple,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She also noticed a lacy pattern appearing under her skin and a strange reaction to sunlight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI would go out in the sun, and it would feel like I was burning from the outside in,\u201d said Hyde.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She also experienced extreme fatigue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe crazy fatigue that I was getting and the pain in my hands had gotten to the point where I was like, \u2018This is not right. There\u2019s something not right,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She went back to her primary care physician, who ordered blood tests. Her doctor noticed Hyde had a high Antinuclear Antibody (ANA) test result and suggested she see a rheumatologist to screen for lupus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI honestly remember, I said, \u2018What the hell is lupus?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI had no clue. Not on my radar. No idea what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hyde\u2019s challenging journey to diagnosis isn\u2019t unique. In fact, research<\/a> indicates that it takes an average of nearly 6 years for a person to receive an accurate lupus diagnosis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSymptoms can overlap with those of other conditions and are often present at onset. Combined with test results that vary from person to person, this can make the path to diagnosis complex and far from straightforward,\u201d Susan Manzi, MD,<\/a> Chair of the Allegheny Health Network Medicine Institute, told Healthline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n