I was recently diagnosed with a rare autoimmune system malfunctioning. It is not contagious - not even blood to blood. Initial stages are mostly mis-diagnosed by General Practitioner. The warning signals that my body has been sending out, which i sadly ignored, are common symptoms.
Our immune system produces antibodies that normally attack hostile viruses and bacteria in an effort to keep us healthy. For my case, however, the immune system mistakenly perceives the cells in skin as foreign, and attacks them. Antibodies that attack one's own cells are called autoantibodies.
Definitive statistics on the incidence and prevalence are not available, but estimates of the number of new cases diagnosed each year ranges from as high as 5 per one hundred thousand to as low as one per million. So why me? My (very gentle) lady doctor told me there is a good chance of eliminating these autoantibodies when my body decided to just get rid of it one fine day... My good god! Let it come soon.
One day you feel perfectly healthy, the next day you learn you have a chronic, life-threatening illness. Why me?
There are times when i feel wonderful, and other times i felt discouraged, in pain, or depressed! It can be very debilitating, and cause lost time at work, loss of appetite, inability to eat normally, weight loss, loss of sleep, hospitalization, emotional distress, etc. Fortunately, this usually occurs with the onset of the disease, during the search for a correct diagnosis and proper treatment. Once effective treatment is initiated, and conditions are under control, it will be undetectable when it is in remission, i should be able to return to my normal lifestyle.
I am now under medication of course, commonly known as Steriod (medical drug name: Prednisolone). Once controlled, the steroid is reduced slowly to minimize side effects (gd news is they already cut my dosage. Yeah!). Some patients then go into remission; however, many patients need a small maintenance dose to keep the disease under control. Potential side effects are weight gain, loss of bone density, loss of hair, headaches, nausea, stomachaches, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and stroke. Patients on these medications must have blood monitored on a regular basis to be aware of possible serious side effects. Why me?
This is what i'm gonna look like in the coming near future. Of course my face has been round (that's why I'm NiAn yuAn yuAn aka Chubby Face) since young, the lack of hair needs no further explainations.Also for once, I am properly diagnosed with "Beta Thalassemia" trait (地中海贫血症), with iron deficiency. CGH didn't bother to further confirm if i'm a Beta Thlm, and just conveniently assumed that i am severely anemic, and assumed for the worst that i could be suffering from internal bleeding, or worst, tumor related illness.
If you wanna know more about Beta Thlm, this is something i found easy to comprehend
http://www.thalassemia.org/updates/pdf/Beta_Thalassemia.pdf
Further understand from my doctor in TTSH, it doesn't pose any significant problem with my daily activities and well being, however the only implication possible will only arise if i marry another Beta Thlm, then our offspring will be a severe case of anemic. (Sheesh, my buddy told me that when i was hosptalised in CGH last year August, and he is awfully right on this!)
That's another criteria to add into my "Mr Right" checklist, so whoever you are, "My dear, no Beta Thlm ok?" *gRin*
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