Woman’s rare disease baffles doctors





Imagine your car breaks down, you bring it to the mechanic, and you discover that the problem is unfixable. But what happens if a person has a health condition and the doctor can’t fix or even identify the problem?

Calabasas resident Jeff Schimmel said his mother had gone to her doctor looking for answers to the chronic fatigue that she was experiencing.

“My mom was feeling tired for a long time and she was going to her doctor and complaining about it for quite a while, and they were treating the symptoms, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her,” Schimmel said. “It was a scary thing . . . She had a lot of different tests done, blood work. But the doctors were totally stumped. They couldn’t figure out what was going on.”

After several more weeks of tests, doctors said Schimmel’s mother had myeloproliferative disorder, a rare disease that attacks the blood and bone marrow. Studies show that only about one in 100,000 people are affected.

According to University of Maryland Medical Center, myeloproliferative disorders are a group of conditions that cause an overproduction of blood cells in the bone marrow. While myeloproliferative disorders are serious and may pose health risks, individuals with these conditions often live for many years after diagnosis, experts said. Schimmel said his mother might have a form of the disease called polycythemia vera, which causes the bone marrow to overproduce blood cells,

particularly red blood cells.

Experts at the University of Maryland Medical Center say exposure to intense radiation might increase an individual’s risk for the condition. But Schimmel said his mother may have contracted the disease by being exposed to certain chemicals. The disease can also be genetic, he said.

“My mom and dad are both Holocaust survivors—they were both in a concentration camp,” Schimmel said. “So, unfortunately, most of their families died in concentration camps and there’s no way for them to know if anything is inherited because their relatives—their parents, aunts and uncles—didn’t survive.”

Despite her condition, Schimmel’s mother remains active.

“She’s a very vibrant person,” Schimmel said. “My mom spends a lot of time traveling around the country giving speeches at schools about the Holocaust. She’s normally very energetic.”

Medical experts say there are no known cures for most myeloproliferative disorders, but treatments are available to help improve the symptoms and prevent complications.

“My mom is 76 years old and most of the treatments that they’re even willing to try for these kinds of illnesses, they don’t recommend for people over 50 because the treatments themselves could kill you,” Schimmel said.

Schimmel and his family are hoping to raise funds for the Myeloproliferative Disorder Foundation so that they can learn more about the disease and how elderly patients, in particular, are affected.

For more information about the Myeloproliferative Disorder Foundation, please go online to www.mpdfoundation.org.


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