Friday, November 9, 2007

A rare disease

Okay,

So this will be my last post for a while, considering I will be moving into my apartment on Saturday. But you guys know all of that. That's why I announced Debbie questions week. I am expecting a lot of you to participate. Please don't disappoint me. Chuckle. I am just kidding; no pressure. I can't seem to reiterate the main point of this blog enough. It's for you-the readers.


On to today's post..


In the recent months, I have covered a variety disabilities and disability topics. But up into recently, I realize I had forgotten one. Why? The answer is quite simple really. The disease is not often mentioned because it's quite rare and there is no known cure for it. What disease am I referring to? It's called Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia . According to Wikipedia, this is a extremely rare genetic disorder, which causes calcium deposits to build up the skull; this dis figures the facial structure and decreases a person's life expectancy. The plight of this disease became known through a popular movie in 1985 called The Mask. It depicts some of the real-life struggles encountered by 16-year-old Rocky Dennis, who lost his life because of the disease
Again, thanks to my TiVo, I was able to record the movie and play it back to write down the interesting facts I learned.
Here are just some of what I learned. Keep in mind, the movie is old, so some of the facts are not up to date. But I figured this would be a good place to start if you are looking for some research.
1. At that time, this disease occurred in only one out of 22 million births.
2. It is caused by two recessive genes
3. It can happen to just about anyone

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