I’m continuing on my long flight to Brazil, AKA, “Zikaland”—in my opinion, (BTW, I do LOVE Brazilians, I just HATE what’s happening). I’m wondering if Brazil is one of the new ground zeros for aplastic anemia, meaning that people are contracting aplastic anemia from exposure to dangerous toxins intended to kill mosquitoes.
Are you with me? I swear when I get back from this trip, I’m going to start digging around to hunt and track incidents of aplastic anemia in Brazil.
And Now For Something Completely Ridiculous…
But in the midst of the seriousness of this often times life threatening disease, I came across a hilarious post of memes, “Funny But True” which made me roar!
Whoever the clever little bugger was who created them, I bow down to you! I’m guessing this person has the condition, which results when the body can no longer produce sustainable amounts of red and white blood cells and platelets.
Have We Got Symptoms for YOU!
If you’re unfamiliar with the condition’s symptoms, well, it varies to some degree depending on whether you’ve got mild, moderate, or severe loss of bone marrow functioning. But most people experience:
- Widespread bruising
- Fatigue
- Lack of energy
- Shortness of breath
- Heart palpitations
- Light headedness
- Fainting
In many cases, especially because the body cannot produce enough red blood cells, the skin looks pale, sickly looking. We’re not talking something that a little dab of blush can fix to make someone look healthier, either. It’s serious. Very serious. A dear friend of mine nearly died until she got accepted into a clinical trial and started a new treatment that’s working so well, she hasn’t had a transfusion in about nine months to a year! That’s fantastic.
So back to the memes, I’m so glad that someone is helping to make the aplastic community laugh! Laughter, no matter when/where/how we do it, helps the soul. And in my opinion, them memes is like, “Oh no YOU di ent” but I’m so glad you did!
