By LAURAN NEERGAARD

Doctor after doctor misdiagnosed or shrugged off Ruth Wilson’s rashes, swelling, fevers and severe pain for six years. She saved her life by begging for one more test in an emergency room about to send her home, again, without answers.

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That last-ditch test found the Massachusetts woman’s kidneys were failing. The culprit? Her immune system had been attacking her own body all that time and nobody caught it.

“I just wish there was a better way that patients could get that diagnosis without having to go through all of the pain and all of, like, the dismissiveness and the gaslighting,” she said.

Wilson has lupus, nicknamed the disease of 1,000 faces for its variety of symptoms — and her journey offers a snapshot of the dark side of the immune system. L

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