■ ARCADIA -- health & wellness Home Care & Staffing Elusive Diagnosis Home Care at the Highest Standard Suffering patients often wait to learn their symptoms are from scleroderma. A full service agency providing quality care for your loved ones. I • Live-In or Hourly • No minimum hours • Complimentary Assessment • Ongoing Care Coordination • All employees are bonded & insured T Caregivers Assist With: •Medication Reminders •Safety Monitoring •Transportation Call Lynn Feinberg and Andy Roisman •Bathing & Dressing •Kosher Prepared Meals •Companionship (248) 594-4574 visit us online • arcadiahomecare.com Acupuncture & Chinese Medical Center Acupuncture & Chinese Medical Center's practitioners obtained their O.M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in oriental medicine and are licensed and nationally certified in acupuncture, Chinese herbs, Asian body work, and oriental medicine. Our senior acupuncturists have more than thirty years of clinical experience. We specialize in treating various rare and complicated diseases, as well as facial rejuvenation and common illnesses. For more information, please visit the clinic website: www.acupunctureherbscenter.com 7071 Orchard Lake Rd. Suite 115 West Bloomfield, MI 48322 4343 Concourse Dr. Suite 110 Ann Arbor, MI 48108 248-325-9552 734-996-0888 1941830 hipoty Feature your business with HipCityDeals to acquire quality and eager new customers via our highly-targeted marketing. JD Ci Get The Jewish News For Only $49!! 1::=3 so The Deli'. JeW1511 NeWS -•---..-1, By running an offer with HipCityDeals, your promotion will be e-mailed to thousands of loyal subscribers who will read about your offer, visit your website, share your business with their friends and follow you on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. 60 August 28 • 2014 JN Ruthan Brodsky Contributing Writer he symptoms started in the summer of 2007. There was swelling around her extremities and she was short of breath. Her doc- tors performed tests but didn't have a diagnosis. 'Although it appeared to be some kind of autoimmune disease, the symptoms persisted until one morning in December I was so short of breath and swollen that I couldn't stand up to make an egg," said Anita DeVine of Bloomfield Township. "I went to the emergency room at Beaumont Hospital where they admitted me to the hospital with high blood pressure, which I never had before, and shortness of breath. I stayed at Beaumont for one week dur- ing which my heart and lung function declined further." DeVine transferred to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor suf- fering from multiple organ failure; she remained there for six weeks. When her kidneys also started to fail she went on dialysis. "During my first few weeks at U-M Hospital, my condition worsened:' she recalled. "My heart, kidney and lung functions remained compromised and my blood needed to be filtered through a process called plasmaphoresis because there was no definitive diagnosis. One night, I had a severe gastrointestinal bleed that required transfusions. "To make matters worse, my platelets had decreased so much that my blood wouldn't clot and I didn't think I'd sur- vive. I had lost 35 pounds and was so weak that I needed help to turn over in bed. My family was called to come to my bedside to say their goodbyes" After three weeks at the U-M Hospital, she was diagnosed with Acute Scleroderma Renal Crisis, an autoim- mune disease whose symptoms typically include some or all of the following: sensitivity to cold in extremities, thick- ening of the skin, shortness of breath, difficulty swallowing, joint stiffness and pain, and damage to internal organs. "I am so lucky I'm not alone:' DeVine said. "My family and friends were very supportive. While in the hospital, my husband and children rotated staying with me through the night. The night of the severe bleed, I told our daughter, Alison, I wasn't feeling well and she insisted on having a doctor examine me before the scheduled rounds. She found a doctor quickly,which was important because my hemoglobin count was less than 3, not a good value. She saved my life that night and stayed home with me for six months while I recuperated" Scleroderma results from an overpro- duction and accumulation of collagen in body tissues. Collagen is a fibrous type of protein that makes up your body's connective tissues, including your skin. Doctors aren't sure what provokes this abnormal collagen production but, for unknown reasons, the immune sys- tem turns against the body, producing inflammation and the overproduction of collagen. DeVine stayed on dialysis until June 2008. During that time, her fingers con- tracted and became so deformed that someone had to cut her food. She had skin lesions, her kidneys and lungs were compromised, and she was exhausted all the time. She now also suffers from Raynaud's disease, a condition that causes some areas of your body, such as fingers, toes, the tip of your nose and your ears, to feel numb and cool in response to cold temperatures or stress. It is a frequent disorder that accompanies scleroderma. She also deals with ongoing evalu- ation for pulmonary fibrosis, also associated with systemic scleroderma. Pulmonary fibrosis can't be repaired but medications and therapies can help ease symptoms, such as shortness of breath, a dry cough, fatigue, unexplained weight loss and aching muscles and joints. She used a wheelchair for some time and then a walker and still uses special adap- tive equipment to feed herself. "That was hard for me to live with because I've always been an active, type A person:' DeVine said. "My form of scleroderma is totally a systemic disease affecting my entire body rather than a single organ or body part, but I try my best to live with it. I can walk now but not very quickly. I can take a shower by myself, but I still need support for many things" Hard To Diagnose Misdiagnosis is common for sclero- derma, according to the Scleroderma Foundation. It sometimes takes three years or more for an individual to be diagnosed and receive appropriate treat- ment because medical professionals are not familiar with the disease. DeVine has her follow-up appoint-