How Lupus Led Me From A Career In Journalism to Medical School
My symptoms were eventually diagnosed as Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks itself. My search online yielded a website that charted survival in vague terms, claiming 90% of lupus patients lived five years post-diagnosis while 75% made it to 10 years and only 65% made it 15 years. For someone in her early 20s, those odds weren't reassuring. I knew as a journalist that information was power and never in my life had I felt so incredibly powerless. So, I set out on a mission to learn as much about lupus as I could. I never dreamed that journey would eventually lead me to medical school.
Kayla Behbahani, D.O., Contributor
Psychiatry Clinical Fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital