Arthritis – Autoimmune Warrior

Bob Saget’s Battle Against Scleroderma, the Autoimmune Disease that Took His Sister’s Life

*Actor Bob Saget was an advocate for scleroderma research, raising over $25 million to find a cure.* Image courtesy of the Scleroderma Foundation.

Bob Saget, the beloved Full House actor who recently passed away, battled against a little-known autoimmune disease prior to his passing. The condition was scleroderma, and it was responsible for the passing of his older sister Gay Saget at the young age of 47.

Gay was diagnosed with scleroderma at age 44, a mere three years before her passing. She had suffered from unrelenting symptoms for years before her diagnosis, however, but doctors couldn’t pinpoint the cause. Her brother Bob had commented on his sister’s diagnosis journey, saying: “She had a lot of fatigue…it felt like her skin was on fire. She went to regular medical doctors that said that it could be lupus, it could be mental illness, it could be Epstein-Barr. They named everything except what it was.”

Gay’s frustrating journey to diagnosis is no outlier in the chronic illness community. Many patients with chronic illnesses such as autoimmune diseases go years without a diagnosis, until their symptoms become severe enough to be diagnosed.

Dr. Fred Wigley, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, has studied scleroderma for the past 45 years. “[Scleroderma] can be a very terrible multi-system disease, but not in every patient,” Dr. Wigley said. With scleroderma, the body over-produces collagen, impairing the functioning of various organs. Common symptoms of the condition include tightening of the skin, finger and toe pain, arthritis, muscle weakness and trouble swallowing. It can also damage internal organs, especially the lungs.

Gay was among approximately 300,000 Americans living with the disease. About 80% of these patients are women, most commonly between the ages of 30 and 50. The disease tends to be more severe in patients of color, for unknown reasons.

Bob said that his sister was treated with steroids, like prednisone and cortisone, but that the drugs failed to relieve her symptoms, and did not get to the root cause of the disease. “She got treatment, but it was just treating her symptoms…She had to move to Los Angeles to live with my parents because she needed so much help,” he had explained.

There are multiple different types of scleroderma, with localized being the most common and more mild type. With localized scleroderma, the internal organs are rarely involved, and it primarily affects the skin. Systemic scleroderma is the less common type, affecting about 30% of patients living with the condition. This is the type that Bob Saget’s sister had, which impacts one’s connective tissues and internal organs.

Since scleroderma was a cause that was very dear to his heart, Bob Saget focused on raising funds for the Scleroderma Research Foundation, which aims to find a cure for this debilitating autoimmune disease. In total, he raised over $25 million for the foundation prior to his passing, leveraging his fame and Hollywood connections to garner donations from big-name celebrities like John Mayer, Rob Williams and Dave Chappelle.

“For me, it’s an homage to [my sister], and somehow telling her that her life had a real purpose,” Saget had said. He continued, “I have a lot to live up to. I feel like, to really do her justice, is to really make huge strides in the next decade or two and to really help these sweet, innocent victims with this disease.”

In light of Bob Saget’s passing, his family members asked friends and fans to remember him by making a donation to charities benefitting patients with scleroderma. To make a donation in Bob Saget’s memory to the Scleroderma Research Foundation, see the official in memory webpage. Donations will be matched up to $1.5 million.

Woman with Rare Autoimmune Disease Undergoes High-Risk Treatment

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*Shelley Clark-Collins and her partner Mark Doyle have travelled to Ottawa, Ontario so that she can receive an innovative treatment for her rare autoimmune disease (Photo: CBC News)*

Shelley Clark-Collins, a 56-year-old woman from Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, is looking to undergo a high-risk procedure to treat her rare autoimmune disease.

Clark-Collins lives with dermatomyositis, an autoimmune condition in which her body’s own immune system mistakenly attacks her healthy cells, causing inflammatory, painful and degenerative changes to her skin and muscles. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, symptoms of the disease include rashes and spotting on the skin, swelling, stiff joints, muscle weakness and aches, difficulty swallowing, voice changes, fatigue, fever, and weight loss. Dermatomyositis can also cause other autoimmune and connective disease conditions, like lupus, and increase the risk of developing cancer.

Dermatomyositis is extremely rare, affecting fewer than 10 in 1 million people, according to an estimate from the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). The disease most often occurs in adults ages 40-60, and juvenile dermatomyositis occurs most commonly in children and youth between the ages of 5 and 15.

Because of its rarity, Clark-Collins had a difficult time getting diagnosed. As a hairdresser, she suddenly found that she was so weak, she could no longer hold up a blow dryer or stand for long periods of time. She was falling down frequently, couldn’t get out of the bathtub, or lift her bed sheets. She was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) after a neurologist found a lesion in her brain.

“But what he was treating me with [for MS] wasn’t working,” explained Clark-Collins. After seeing numerous specialists, she was diagnosed with “everything but the kitchen sink,” she recalls, including cancer, arthritis, and Grave’s disease. A dermatologist even told her that she should see a psychiatrist for Empty Nest Syndrome as a result of her kids moving out.

Despite these setbacks, Clark-Collins was eventually correctly diagnosed with dermatomyositis through blood work and muscle biopsies. Since then, the disease has affected her health and wellbeing substantially. Prior to developing the disease, she was an avid marathon runner and outdoor enthusiast, enjoying kayaking, rock climbing, and skiing. Now, she says that walking to her car is a feat. She sleeps in a chair because getting in and out of bed is too difficult with her muscle weakness. She has difficulty swallowing and talking, and has suffered irreparable damage to her heart and lungs. She’s had a stroke, blood clots, and a life-threatening sepsis infection.

*Dr. Harold Atkins is pioneering a new treatment designed to help patients with dermatomyositis, a rare autoimmune disease.*

However, Clark-Collins has found hope in a new procedure being pioneered by Ottawa, Ontario-based Dr. Harold Atkins. The innovative procedure is a combination of intense chemotherapy and a blood stem cell transplant. The chemotherapy will destroy her diseased immune system, and the stem cells from her bone marrow will be removed, purified and re-injected into her body. It’s a risky and aggressive procedure that aims to reset her immune system – but there are no guarantees that it will work. With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, re-setting her immune system also leaves her extremely vulnerable to contagious diseases, meaning she could easily die should she catch the virus.

Despite the risks, Clark-Collins says she’s “very excited,” and is looking forward to the possibility of reclaiming her life. As a mother of two adult children, she says “it’s been hard on [my kids] to watch me decline like that.”

Plus, she’s running out of options. She has developed a resistance to several of her medications already, she can’t take large doses of steroids for much longer, and her opioid painkiller can cause an addiction. She also goes to the hospital once a week for plasmapheresis, a procedure in which her plasma (the liquid part of the blood) is separated from her blood cells, and is replaced with new plasma. But this treatment isn’t guaranteed to work forever.

With this new treatment, the hope is that her dermatomyositis will go into remission. Clark-Collins says she dreams of being able to regain her independence, start running again, and just to be able to hug her children without excruciating pain.

“Just maybe [I’ll] get a little big of my life back,” she said hopefully.

To learn more about Clark-Collins’ battle with dermatomyositis, read the full story on CBC News.

Pro Tennis Player Caroline Wozniacki Describes Battle with Rheumatoid Arthritis

September 13, 2020IsabelLeave a comment

*Caroline Wozniacki, a professional Danish tennis player, found herself embroiled in a match against her own immune system*

From Grand Slam Champion to Bedridden

Caroline Wozniacki, a professional tennis player and Grand Slam champion from Denmark, was at the top of her game in 2018. At 27 years old, she had just finished playing in the Wimbledon, when she found herself feeling extremely ill.

“After Wimbledon, I just feel like I had the flu and wasn’t feeling well. I took some time off from tennis and training in the gym and was just going to relax, but I wasn’t feeling better. So I decided to go back to training and to see what happens,” the now 30-year-old tells Health in an exclusive interview.

She continued to play in tournaments across North America, but only continued to feel worse, and ended up having to withdraw from the Washington Open in Washington, DC as a result. “Day to day, I felt exhausted and was dizzy on the court,” Wozniacki explained. “I also had pain in some joints.”

*Unbeknownst to fans, Carolina Wozniacki was battling an undiagnosed autoimmune disease* *through the later part of her tennis career*

At the next tournament—the Rogers Cup in Montreal—Wozniacki was devastated to lose her first-round match. She put the loss behind her, though, and decided to focus her energy on preparing for her next match in Cincinnati. The following morning, however, Wozniacki couldn’t even move her arms or hands.

“I was in so much pain and felt exhausted. I went to see a doctor, because I felt extreme pain in my shoulders, elbows and hands,” she recalls. Her joints were swollen, but since her doctor didn’t see any damage to her ligaments, she chalked her pain up to her demanding travel schedule and athletic regimen. Strangely enough, her vocal cords were also inflamed and her voice became raspy.

Her symptoms continued to worsen, and because doctors couldn’t determine the cause, “They said, ‘Maybe you’re in bad shape. Maybe it’s mental. Maybe you’re pregnant.’ They basically called me crazy,” Wozniacki said. She found it extremely frustrating, especially considering she was in tip-top shape and had just won the Australian Open and a Grand Slam title the year prior. “I was 27 years old and the number two tennis player in the world. I’m in great shape and eat well. I do all the right things,” she lamented.

She insisted on getting multiple blood tests and consulting with various specialists. Finally, it was when she visited the fifth doctor in New York City, that it was discovered through a blood test that she had an autoimmune disease. However, it wasn’t clear which autoimmune condition she had. After a series of additional tests, she was finally diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease affecting one’s joints.

Life After an Autoimmune Diagnosis

*After being diagnosed with RA, Wozniacki is determined to live a full life*

Wozniacki says that to her knowledge, she has no family history of RA or any other autoimmune disease. From what she understands, the condition could have been triggered due to her exhaustion and her immune system being compromised. Now, she keeps her RA symptoms under control through conventional pharmaceutical treatments, combined with lifestyle tips like consuming a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet and maintaining a consistent exercise routine. She also believes in getting enough quality sleep and avoiding stress in order to prevent arthritis flares.

Though the diagnosis was shocking, Wozniacki was determined to continue playing tennis, and even went on to play in the US Open and the China Open, where she won one of her biggest tournaments. She has since retired from playing tennis professionally, and now works to encourage other women living with chronic inflammatory diseases to share their stories through the Advantage Hers campaign.

Wozniacki describes her struggle with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) as part of the Advantage Hers campaign.

“It takes a long time for a lot of women to get diagnosed, and a lot of doctors don’t take their symptoms seriously at first because autoimmune diseases aren’t on a lot of doctors’ radars. I want women to know that if they have pain in the joints and feel exhausted, they should talk to their doctors about getting tested for RA or other autoimmune diseases,” she says.

Finally, Wozniacki credits her family for helping her to get through the difficulties of living with a chronic invisible illness. That being said, she also believes it’s important to connect with others living with the disease; “I really think it’s important to be able to speak to other people going through the same thing you are. It really makes a difference,” she said.

To learn more about Carolina Wozniacki’s journey with RA, check out the Advantage Hers campaign and share your own story on social media with the hashtag #AdvantageHers.