Flares are common.
Lupus falls into the category of auto-immune disorders. Basically, this is self-betrayal, your body's immune system sending out white blood cell scavengers and mercenaries to destroy what it perceives as the enemy. Unfortunately, that enemy happens to be your own body's tissue. Besides the disseminated, or widespread SLE, there is Discoid Lupus, which manifests generally as a skin disorder, and creates much less havoc and permanent tissue destruction, overall. With the discoid variety, what you see is what you get, whereas systemic lupus can run amuck through various internal body organs and systems.