A personal story and a worthy cause

darkbloom

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Wednesday March 02, 2011 · 5:47 PM PST

2011/03/02 · 17:47

This is a diary about giving back. It's a personal story with a request involved, so if you are not into that, this is not a diary for you.

In 2002 my daughter was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disease called Relapsing Polychondritis. It’s an insidious disease wherein the immune system attacks all the cartilage in the body. This results in painful, deteriorating joints, inflamed ears, and can progress to attack the eyes, the nervous system, and can cause the collapse of the entire respiratory system. After years of dangerous treatments with drugs that produce scary side-effects (a prednisone-methotrexate cocktail) a really smart doctor prescribed instead a drug that is used primarily to avoid rejection in transplant patients. The upshot is that my daughter is now ‘well’ for he first time in many years. She has taken up walking for exercise and walks to and from work—six miles each way. The change is miraculous. If Scarlett did not have superb, affordable heath care and access to this one in a million doctor, she would still be in decline. We feel blessed.

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