Eliana is the fiercest zebra I know. To be honest, she's also the only zebra I know. They are fairly rare.
April 30th is the last day of the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018. It's also the last day of Primary Immunodeficiency Awarness Month. Todays blog post is written in honor of Eliana.
Primary Immunodeficiency Disease (PIDD) is a group of over 300 diseases where the immune system is defective. Our immune system is our main defense against infections. When it it doesn't work properly, simple infections can be devastating, and sometimes even fatal.
The Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF) website indicates there are approximately 250,000 people diagnosed with PI in the USA. Thousands more are undiagnosed. Diagnosis usually occurs after recurrent infections fail to respond to conventional antibiotic treatments.
Once diagnosed, treatment is targeted toward the specific deficiency and can include preventive antibiotics, Gene or Stem Cell Therapy, Bone Marrow Transplants, or Intravenous Immunoglobulin (IVIG) Infusion Therapy.
Eliana is treated with IVIG. Like my monthly iron infusions, IVIG takes three (3) hours administration time. I'm a middle-agged woman who tolerates my IV Iron. Eliana also tolerates her IVIG treatments. The difference is she is not yet three (3) years old.
What does all of this have to do with zebras?
The IDF adopted the zebra print as their awareness ribbon. So today, in addition to writing the final post for the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2018, I'm also sporting a little zebra print.
Both actions are meant to honor Zebras everywhere ...especially Eliana.
#ThinkZebra #PIawareness #A2ZBloggingChallenge2018
Fitting print for such a rare affliction.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Thanks for the read.
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