Been Wanting To Do A Gijinka For Sooo Long

been wanting to do a gijinka for sooo long

My application for Rhodochrosite’s Court of dA. This is Winza Sapphire--Winza or Winnie for short. She’s a noble who’s so terrified of being attacked that she surrounds herself with as many bodyguards as humanly possible. Her weapon is a javelin that can open into a shield.

Feb 29th is Rare Disease Day.

Rare Diseases vary in classification, but there are over 7,000 rare diseases and more being added every year. In the United States a Disease is considered rare if it affects less than 1 in 200,000 people.

However, 30 million Americans have Rare Diseases, making that 1 in 10 Americans or 10% of Americans.

2/3rds of those with Rare diseases are Children, and 30% of Children with rare diseases don’t live to hit their 5th Birthday, and are responsible for 35%+ deaths in the first year of life.

Problems with this:

-95% of Rare illnesses have not ONE FDA approved treatment.

-Approximately ½ of all rare illnesses don’t even have an organization that is disease specific to focus on the illness or research.

It can make it really hard for patients to be diagnosed, since doctors are repeatedly told things such as “If you hear hoofbeats think horses, not zebras”. The doctor that coined that term lived in Maryland, and used it as an example to look for more common things first.

The problem with this is that it can take years to find a diagnosis and once a doctor suspects something rare sometimes they won’t treat you anymore. Many doctors don’t want to deal with rare illnesses, and many even don’t know what you’re talking about when you say your illness name.

-Many rare illnesses are snowflake illnesses which mean everyone presents differently and requires different treatments. That makes it hard because even with more prevalent rare illnesses, like EDS, it means that one person could be totally non-functional and another moderately to normally functional.

-Most patients with rare illnesses have no universal meds, treatment, or way to alleviate suffering and pain, and are often seen as drug seekers, or mentally unstable until they find a doctor that has seen the illness before.

-The lack of knowledge of the illnesses and how to treat it delays and diagnosis which can sometimes mean life or death, or huge unnecessary progression in the illness.

-Many rare diseases have inaccessible specialists. Doctors who can take months or years to get into see, only if you can travel far away and if your insurance accepts the out of network care.

-Treatment varies highly from person to person which means that a lot of time doctors end up disagreeing and fighting on what is best for a patient, causing treatment to be delayed or stopped.

Lets put this in perspective:

-1.5 Million Americans have a heart attack or stroke every year.

-In 2014 there were approximately 14-15 million cancer patients/survivors in the US (And even that number includes some rare diseases!).

-30 Million Americans are affected by a clump of rare, unconnected illnesses that are lumped together as “Rare Diseases” or “Orphan Diseases”

The Sign for Rare Diseases is Zebra Print, or Jeans (As upward of 85% of rare illnesses are genetic).

The 29th of February is always rare disease day. Sometimes we need to think Zebras and not Horses.

Zebra Strong. Alone we are few, together we are many.

- (if anyone knows who wrote this, please tell me so I can credit them)

Check, please

Headcanon that Korra (and Asami) start picking up on some pretty romantic vibes from these two when they return from the spirit world and do everything in their power to help Wu get Mako to join the bi side.