Living With Lupus: Joyce Benatti
Living with Lupus
Joyce Benatti’s life demands that she spends hours at a time strapped to a machine. Is she an operator? No. She handles over fifteen different medications. Is she a pharmacist? Guess again.
Benatti, 60, of Lewistown, Pa., is an individual who is living with Lupus – a condition that currently has no cure.
Since the early 1900s, Lupus has been on a steady rise affecting millions of people daily. While these people suffer, only a fraction has access to treatment. Out of that fraction, even less receive a transplant.
Benatti has been fighting this disease since 1985, she has been on the wait list for five years, and continues fighting with hopes that she will one day receive a kidney transplant. Since she is considered “elderly,” her chances will only decrease since transplants are more often given to younger patients.
Even though Benatti may have to face the fact that she may not ever get the treatment she fully deserves, she feels at peace with things.
“ I guess I can’t blame them, I’m old, I had my years. I understand why these kids are prioritized,” said Benatti. “I rather take my chances, and maybe someday just say hey, enough’s, enough. And when that happens, it’s enough.”
