Episode 17: Jameisha Prescod, Lupus, disability and not looking back.

Jameisha Prescod was still in school when she found herself feeling so tired that she wanted to sleep all of the time. Visits to the Doctor gave her diagnoses that seemed to explain how she was feeling. Anemia, low Vitamin D. However, things didn’t seem to get better.

When she had her first real flare up, Jameisha knew that this wasn’t normal, however her GP’s just kept shrugging her off and telling her that there was nothing wrong. Maybe she was just depressed?

Jameisha decided to take matters into her own hands and googled her symptoms and what she landed on that seemed to make sense were things like Sjrogens, Lyme, maybe something else. She approached her doctors using a different request, can we test for these things just to rule them out?

Although a Rheumatologist did find Lupus markers in her blood, he was still not willing to give her a diagnosis and suggested that she visit a Psychologist and take anti-depressants. Heart broken, Jameisha eventually found a Professor, specialising in Lupus who was actually willing to give her a definitive diagnosis of Lupus. All around, it took about 6 years and many different attempts to have the disease officially recognised.

After diagnosis, Jameisha discovered that Lupus was found on both sides of her family tree, in fact one Aunt had actually died as a result of her condition. Jameisha also lives with bi-lateral hip impingement that is not part of Lupus but still causes pain and issues with standing for long periods of time.

So what do you do when you are 23 years old, living in London and coming to terms with Lupus? For Jameisha, it’s about not looking back.

She is passionate about sharing her experience of life with chronic illness, openly and honestly using her experience as a film maker, to help create awareness, conversation and acceptance on instagram.

Through her video’s Jameisha talks about disability, real life issues like whether or not to disclose chronic illness before applying for jobs, how to manage having a social life and build in recovery time before and after and creating community with chronic illness.

We talked about the gaps we all fall into in the medical community, the invisible disability, the lack of a language or concept of chronic illness in our society and culture and much, much more and I so enjoyed our conversation.

Have a listen here on the blog, search for Emotional Autoimmunity podcast on your favourite podcast player and if you enjoyed this episode, I would love you to leave a review and give it a share, especially if you know someone with Lupus who needs to hear this.

Jameisha, is a 23 year old filmmaker from London. She currently lives with lupus, migraines and bilateral hip impingement. Jameisha founded You Look Okay To Me, an online space for chronic illness. Through video content she strives to explore chronic illness/disability and their links to wider themes like technology, art and culture.

You can find Jameisha on Instagram at You Look Ok to me

Her website is here.