On the Life-changing Disease

There was a middle aged gentleman presented to the rheumatology ward few weeks ago. When my friend and I first saw him, I thought he had rheumatoid arthritis, his fingers were all deviated to one side. So after we were cleared as to why he was presented on that day, we tried to find out what was the underlying disease.

"Muscle pain. My leg no energy."

Odd. It wasn't rheumatoid arthritis then. It might be something to do with the nerves and muscles. But when we found out he followed up under the rheumatology department, we got even more confused. I finally gave up guessing and asked him straight away whether he knew the name of the disease.

"I know, but I don't know how to read."

And he showed me his phone, where he had saved the word down.

"Dermatomyositis."

Poor lad.

He had to quit his job and live on Socso compensation due to the autoimmune disease, meaning his own antibody is causing him this disease. He had to be taken care by his elderly mother, as he was not married. And he has no friends in town because he worked out-station all these while.

He was taking steroids to suppress his immune system and control the disease, but having that treatment, he suffers from the side effects as well. He had gastric ulcer, which led to him having to take more medications.

Same as any other autoimmune diseases, it's quite a stubborn disease. But with the advancement in medical sciences, thank goodness there are numerous treatments and immune-modulating drugs. So, over 90% of patients today will do well for many years, with remission being a possibility.