Lupus benefit concert

[Guest guest]

I wanted to share this with group since you all are "family and friends" to me. Many of you know that my 15 year old daughter was diagnosed with Lupus ( SLE) a few months ago. It was a terrifying time for me as her mom and a physician. But thankfully she has done remarkably well and we are very grateful. I am doing so much better and was able to hold my practice together with the help and support of many people, including some in this group. So, I wanted to publically thank you all.

Below is an update about Olivia that we send out to those who have been helping us and keeping her in their thoughts and prayers.

We wanted to invite any who are in the area to a Lupus benefit concert that she will be playing in on November 18th, 2006 at Hochstein School of Music concert hall.

See the below post.

Thanks again for your words of encouragement to me .

Gratefully,

Lee

To all of our friends and family,

It has been a while and I wanted to update everyone. Thankfully, Olivia continues to do well. We have been able to drop her prednisone dose to 5mg and she still seems to be holding in remission on this! We continue to be so grateful for your continued prayers for her and our family.

has had the opportunity these past months to be able to confer with Dr. Gerald Apel ( Lupus and kidney specialist from Colombia Medical Center). He is the specialist whom we were able to see this past summer to consult on Olivia. He is a wonderful physician who has come twice now to Rochester as a speaker at some medical conferences. Both times, he set aside some time to review what has been going on with Olivia and her treatment. As an aside.... for those of you who are sports fans.... he is Alonzo Mourning's physician. Alonzo is the NBA star , who has a kidney transplant!

has also been able to network with several of the specialists at Strong rheumatolgy and immunology and get involved with the latest Lupus research activities.

We are trying to get a study going to research the detection and prevention of Lupus. Besides working to find a cure for Lupus, the ultimate goal would be to be able to detect and prevent the onset of Lupus!

Speaking of research....

Olivia wanted to invite you to a Lupus benefit concert which she was asked to play in. We joined the Lupus foundation and Olivia saw that

every year Hochstein school of music hosts a benefit concert to raise money for Lupus research. The dean of students there at Hochstein had a student many years ago who passed away with complications of Lupus. So, he organizes this yearly . Olivia contacted him and told him about herself and that she is a violinist and that she wanted to help raise awareness for Lupus .

She will be playing a violin solo with the orchestra. There will be other soloists also ( faculty from Hochstein).

So, we hope you can come to help support her and a good cause!

The concert is Saturday November 18th at 7:30 pm at Hochstein School of Music Performance Hall. You can buy tickets at the door.