The last day in February is Rare Disease Day, a day to bring awareness to the general public about rare diseases affecting many people’s lives. What I didn’t know until we had V and researched Rare Disease Day, is that 1/20 people will live with a rare disease at some point in their life.

Despite how many are affected, most of these diseases actually have a small group affecting each specific disease, having no cure and most of the time actually go undiagnosed. We celebrate rare disease day on the last day in February, a month with a rare number of days.

So what is a rare disease?

“There are over 300 million people living with one or more of over 6,000 identified rare diseases around the world, each supported by family, friends and a team of carers that make up the rare disease community.
Each rare disease may only affect a handful of people, scattered around the world, but taken together the number of people directly affected is equivalent to the population of the world’s third largest country.
Rare diseases currently affect 3.5% – 5.9% of the worldwide population.
70% of those genetic rare diseases start in childhood.
72% of rare diseases are genetic whilst others are the result of infections (bacterial or viral), allergies and environmental causes, or are degenerative and proliferative.” (1)

What are the challenges with a rare disease?

Due to such a lack in scientific knowledge and quality information of each disease there are often delays in getting a correct diagnosis. The lack of information also delays appropriate interventions and treatment, causing additional burdens on those affected.
Due to the rarity and diversity within each disease, it is so important for research done to be international so that all researchers, experts and clinicians are connected and able to collaborate more effectively and efficiently. There are several initiatives, including the International Rare Disease Consortium, the European Reference Network, Care 4 Rare (this is a Canadian run program), and EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, that support international, collaborative work.

How will Rare Disease Day help make a difference?

Rare disease day helps to bring awareness to the 300 million people living with a rare disease around the world, and other loved ones affected as well.

“The long-term cause of the Rare Disease Day campaign is to achieve equitable access to diagnosis, treatment, health and social care and social opportunity for people affected by a rare disease.”(1)

At the start of Rare Disease Day in 2008, 18 countries held events, and in 2019 over 100 countries brought awareness to rare diseases by holding events. This is exciting progress.

So how does this affect our family?

As mentioned in a previous post The terrors of being a NICU parent, our daughter was diagnosed with Incontinentia Pigmenti, a rare congenital condition that affects her X chromosomes. This in turn affects her skin, hair, teeth, microvasculature (including her eyes), and central nervous system.
What I haven’t mentioned is that only 1200 people with this condition have been reported in scientific literature. Current prevalence being 0.6-2.1/1,000,000 persons, which is a 0.00006%-0.00021% of the population on earth. (2)

At 6 months of age V was also diagnosed with a rare allergy condition called FPIES (food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome). It is a non-IgE allergy affecting her gastrointestinal system. It causes vomiting to the risk of hypovolemic shock, abdominal pain, and bleeding with diarrhea. Most outgrow this condition by the age of 3, however a small number live with this allergy for life.
From numbers I could find, FPIES is estimated to affect 0.28% of children in the United States currently. Due to frequent misdiagnosis this number is likely low. (3)

Living with a Rare Disease

Living with a rare disease has so many complicated facets. Not only is there little information out there, many doctors don’t know or understand the condition. I go to our family doctor and tell her what I want/need, not the other way around. She actually told me the last time I was in that I am the expert, not her. What is scary about this, is what if a doctor doesn’t agree with what my daughter needs? What if we go to the emergency room needing specific care and they don’t agree with what she needs and ignore our concerns? Things can go from scary to downright dangerous.

Support groups are our life. I have so many support groups, yes on facebook, but they have made our life so much simpler and safer. There is so much information each of us as parents have researched and discovered, so why not share? Obviously it is important to trust your source and do research as necessary to confirm what was stated or suggested, but I have learned so much about new updated protocols to follow, food suggestions and tips on dealing with IP and FPIES in the hospital setting. Due to all of this advice, we were safely able to navigate surgery for V this past January, you can read about it here.
These support groups also are so important for ones mental health. It is easier to shelter yourself and your child when someone in your family is affected by a rare disease or allergy. It is easy to just stay home than to go out, risking your child, worrying about an innumerable amount of risks, trying to explain yourself and your child numerous times. It is so much simpler to shelter oneself. I have found support, people I can vent to, people that understand. It also makes it easier to go out because of advice given.

For many with a rare disease, or really any disease, life is more expensive. We celebrate daily that we live in Canada, where most of our medical expenses are covered by the health care system. Unfortunately this isn’t the case for many across the world. Sadly, our health care does not include FPIES or any allergies under a tax exemption for food expenses. Depending on severity of a condition, it can become very expensive to support the one in your life with said restriction. For us, corn is debilitating. Everything we eat needs to be locally sourced from specific farmers, with specific farming practices. This includes butchering practice and packaging of all food products. Suffice to say, it puts a strain on ones budget.

There are of course the struggles if ones family is not supportive and you have not only no help, but judgement too. Judgement as to treatment options, lifestyle changes, things they can do to help etc.

For many with a rare disease they are undergoing medical treatment that is new, joining medical trials, trying medication after medication. There is often no end to the disease and the start of ones day. So how do you live with a disease and not let it define your life? For everyone that looks so different.

For our family, it means trying to make meals as normal as possible, even if our ingredients are limited. It also means scheduling doctor appointments around our life, rather life around the doctor appointments. We bring food with us to go out instead of just staying home as we can’t eat out. Some struggles we haven’t come across yet, like how we will approach dangerous sports (increased risk for retinal detachment) or for V later in making decisions about having a family (as IP is hereditary and often causes miscarriages).

I encourage you all to read up about a loved ones disease, rare or not, and know how you can support them. Whether they are in need of financial support for programs, help with just staying on top of their house (due to an even busier schedule than most) or even just taking them out for coffee and listening. Trust me, when loved ones research and are able to participate in a conversation about the condition, bring forward suggestions or ideas and overall just are there, it means a lot!

References

(1) Rarediseaseday.org

(2) https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/incontinentia-pigmenti/

(3) https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/food-protein-induced-enterocolitis-syndrome/