What is Sjogren's

Sjögren syndrome (pronounced pron.: /ˈʃoʊɡrɨnz/ SHOH-grinz in English), also known as "Sicca syndrome",^[1] is a systemic autoimmune disease in which immune cells attack and destroy the exocrine glands^[2] that produce tears and saliva. It is named after Swedish ophthalmologist Henrik Sjögren^[3] (1899–1986), who first described it. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sj%C3%B6gren%27s_syndrome)

According to my reading more women get it after menopause, except for a few lucky people like myself not only did I draw the short stick in the cancer lottery, I also pulled the short stick for another disease.

There are two types Primary and Secondary, I have Primary Sjogren's, it has been 2 years and I still can't pronounce it and people give confused looks when I try to explain it.  When I am talking to fellow cancer patients I basically tell em it is like side effects from Chemo, I have xerostomia which is a fancy way of saying dry mouth, to combat this I get to take a pill called EVOXAC which is supppose to stimulate salvia production.  With the dry mouth comes swollen glands that can become big and rock hard when the ducts get blocked.  I also have degenerative artiritis in both ankles and left knee which I have Celebrex for and with Celebrex comes targeted mail for AARP and other mails directed at over 50 demographics.  The next is keratoconjunctivitis sicca and what is this dry eyes baby, I actually have plugs in my lower ducts to keep tears in the eye, I am suppose to use eye drops but they all burn like hell, it looks like Restatis is in my future but I have to get the plugs removed for that. Severe fatigue, joint pain, swollen partoid gland, dry nose, dry ears, acid reflux, hoarseness, trouble swallowing, dental decay, dry skin and yet another rare disorder called
Raynaud's disease.

What is this?  A disorder of the blood vessels, usually affecting the fingers and toes.  Bascially when this disorder triggers it causes the blood vessels to narrow preventing blood from getting to the surface of the skin and the affected areas turn white and blue. When this happens I have to stick my hands in my arm pits, or soak them in warm water. 

Sinusitis and recurrent sinus infections are very common in Sjögren’s patients so that explains all those sinus infections during Chemo.  This leads to post nasal drip that makes it way to my stomach causing more issues like upchucking. I am also at an increase risk of walking pneumonia which I battled last winter.