Cindy Kane, a computer science teacher at Muskogee High School, has been living with lupus since her diagnosis in 1982.

“I was running a really high fever of 104 to 106 degrees,” she said. “When I went to the doctor, he said he thought he heard a swishing sound in my heart.”

At the time, Kane’s doctor diagnosed her with pericarditis.

She had no idea it was also a symptom of lupus.

“They ran every test imaginable,” she said. “They finally ran a lupus blood test, and it came back positive.”

As it turned out, Kane had been living with lupus since 1970 and she didn’t even know it.

“I could fall asleep in a bowling alley,” Kane said. “That’s not normal of course.”

Kane said doctors advice to her was typical for women in those days. They told her to get her nerves under control.

“Doctors are treating women with more respect these days,” she said. “In my case, I had just had a baby 14 months earlier and that’s when I experience my first flare.”

From high blood pressure, headaches, swollen joints and exhaustion, Kane has endured each symptom while living a normal life. She also wears a sunscreen and long sleeves in the summer.

“Everyone experiences symptoms differently,” she said. “It makes it that much harder to diagnose.”

Kane stays out of the sun; she calls it her worst enemy.

“I have to be extremely careful of the sun,” she said. “I have to rest, pace myself so I don’t overexert myself. Stress is something we should avoid at all costs.”