The Condition I chose is in the category of Vasculitis. There are a few types of Vasculitis. It is very rare. Some conditions are 1-500,000 people. Others are 1 in 1 million people. The particular condition of Vasculitis I chose is called Wegener’s Granulomatosis. It is not a contagious, or hereditary.
Vasculitis is an inflammation of the blood vessels. It is an autoimmune condition in which your own body attacks your blood vessels., mistaking them for “invaders”. There is no known cause, there is no cure. There are treatments to try to control it, or put it in remission.
Different Vasculitis’s target different things. One particular one called Wegener’s Granulomatosis targets primarily small blood vessels. Those are the ones of your eyes, ears, nose/ sinus, lungs., kidneys. It often comes on rapidly, out of the blue. It’s a bit like a wild fire., and can quickly render someone blind, deaf, etc., sometimes even overnight, if not caught in time. Before treatment, life expectancy was only a matter of months.
Surprisingly, a well-known doctor was the life saver in finding a treatment years ago. He was an expert in studying complicated conditions. That was always his specialty. His name is a name many of us are familiar with, and those with vasculitis are quite grateful for., his name is Doctor Anthony Fauci. His discovery has saved the lives of those with Vasculitis.
As quoted.,
“The treatment was originally developed by Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., and his colleagues in the early 1970s. Before this treatment regimen became available, about 80 percent of people died within two years of disease onset from kidney failure or bleeding in the lungs. The nearly 40-year-old therapy has been lifesaving for many patients.
“More than 90 percent of individuals with this once-devastating disease experience remission after they receive cyclophosphamide-based therapy,” says Dr. Fauci. “Despite these gratifying results, there remains a high rate of relapse and a need for retreatment. Identifying more effective treatment options would be a welcome development.”
Wegener’s Granulomatosis was first discovered in a cluster of people in the concentration camps of Auschwitz. There are some theories that it can be triggered by stressful situations. Whether that stress be physical, such as a previous assault on the body., like an infection., or mental., like a difficult situation.
Recently the name Wegener’s has been changed because the doctor who discovered it was a Nazi. The new name is GPA… short for a long string of words… lol.
I chose this condition and topic., because it is one that just happened upon me a few years ago. I was a very healthy person, hiking, traveling., doing lots of things. One day suddenly I collapsed. I did almost die. It took a few years to get figured out. The reason I have it is unknown. Its possible it was triggered from Lyme disease
It’s part of why I returned to school. I had been procrastinating it for many years. I spent a lot of those years traveling., and moving around., mostly because I wanted to see the world. Now I am forced to stay put, but that’s not such a bad thing. It’s helping me focus on something I’ve meant to, and I’m glad I’m finally doing it.
It is very hard to diagnose. In fact., It’s still up in the air which type I have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wegener
