For two years, Michelle Davis had been searching for relief from lupus. It wasn’t until a severe episode brought her to Methodist Southlake Medical Center’s emergency department that she finally felt understood and truly cared for.
“I just remember thinking something was really wrong,” Michelle says. “I thought, ‘Am I dying?’”
It all began in March 2024 when Michelle woke up in the early morning hours with her face severely swollen, a symptom of the autoimmune disease that’s known as facial edema.
“My face had blown up probably to four times the size, and it quickly put me into a panic,” she says. “I remember feeling like my face was exploding.”
Michelle and her husband, Ryan, immediately drove to Methodist Southlake to figure out what was happening.
“The minute I walked into Methodist, I knew they were going to make sure I was taken care of,” Michelle says. “Nobody made me feel like I didn’t belong there.”
UNCOVERING THE MYSTERY
In 2023, Michelle was formally diagnosed with lupus, a condition where the immune system attacks your own tissue and organs. For Michelle, and many others, lupus symptoms can vary not only from person to person but also within an individual’s own body over time. That’s why it’s often referred to as “the cruel mystery.”
In Michelle’s case, it took 14 different doctors and two years before she received the proper diagnosis.
“Every time I thought we would figure out what one symptom was, something else would come about,” Michelle says. “I had so many people say, ‘It’s all in your head. There’s nothing really happening,’ until the last doctor finally did an ANA test.”
An ANA test looks for signs that your immune system is attacking your own body, something that happens in diseases like lupus. Most people with lupus will have a positive ANA test, so it can be a helpful clue. But it’s not a perfect test, which is why doctors use it as a starting point.
Even with her diagnosis, Michelle’s swelling that spring was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.
“What I have learned with lupus is that certain symptoms might not look like a flare,” Michelle says. “It might look like a rash or an allergy.”
When a lupus flare occurs, it aggravates the usual symptoms, and some patients develop new symptoms altogether.
“That morning, I knew something was going on with my body. I could feel the fatigue, brain fog, and onset of sadness and depression,” Michelle says. “My whole body was basically shutting down.”
Michelle’s painful facial swelling was a new symptom of her lupus.
PERSONALIZED CARE
When Michelle arrived at Methodist Southlake’s emergency department, the staff checked her in quickly and got her into a room. They started asking questions about her symptoms and flare-up to figure out what tests she needed.
“Every single moment there calmed me down,” Michelle says. “I knew nothing bad was going to happen to me, and I wasn’t going to die. I knew I was taken care of.”
That kind of experience is what Justin Fairless, DO, LP, FAEMS, FAAEM, wants for every patient in the emergency department that he leads as medical director.
“While the emergency department can become very busy, we must also remember the perspective of the patient,” Dr. Fairless says. “While it may be another day on the job for us, it may be one of the worst days of a patient’s or family member’s life, or at least one of the scariest days.”
After spending countless hours at other doctors’ offices, Michelle says she finally felt seen and heard during her visit at Methodist.
“This was true medical care,” she shares. “This is people putting you before anything else.”
Philanthropy is important to Michelle, who volunteers for local organizations in her free time.
ADVOCATING FOR OTHERS
Since her experience in March, Michelle has been doing well and focused on enjoying every aspect of life. She’s been managing her symptoms by removing alcohol from her diet, maintaining low stress levels, and prioritizing self-care.
Outside of her work in the title industry, she volunteers for organizations like Jason Witten’s SCORE Foundation, Grace Grapevine, and the American Heart Association. Now more than ever, she wants to advocate for others, especially those suffering from autoimmune diseases. She knows first-hand how isolating living with a disease like lupus can be.
“It has really been a joy to find my health again and knowing that this isn’t a life sentence,” Michelle says. “It’s a life learning situation that will help me advocate for others.”
“What I really want to share with people is, don’t give up. No matter what’s going on with you, there’s a lot more ahead.”
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