From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Titanoboa, /tiËtÉËnÉµËbÉµ.É/ ; meaning  titanic boa , is an extinct genus of snake that lived approximately 60â58 million years ago, during the Paleocene epoch, a 10-million-year period immediately following the dinosaur extinction event.
When writer Flannery O'Connor was diagnosed with lupus in 1950 at age 25, the autoimmune disease was poorly understood, often confused with arthritis. O'Connor braved debilitating pain, immobility, and fatigue with her characteristic humor at times, calling her crutches flying buttresses.
SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus): A chronic inflammatory condition caused by an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease occurs when the body's tissues are attacked by its own immune system. Patients with lupus have unusual antibodies in their blood that are targeted against their own body tissues. Lupus can cause disease of the skin, heart, lungs, kidneys, joints, and nervous system. When only the skin is involved, the condition is called discoid lupus. When internal organs are involved, the condition is called systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Up to 10% of persons with discoid lupus (lupus limited to the skin) eventually develop the systemic form of lupus (SLE).