Purple Canaries

Latent; clinically latent; completely latent; asymptomatic; completely asymptomatic; totally asymptomatic; clinically expressed; overt; manifest; biochemical and clinically manifest. Over the years, many terms such as these have been used by doctors/scientists to describe patients’ acute porphyria activity (most notably AIP which has long been the scientific “darling” of the acute porphyrias). In 1994, based on […]

Acute porphyria is… “horrible.” “excruciating, mind-bending pain, and more pain, vomiting, heart racing like crazy, not being able to breathe, brutal—just brutal.” “being treated like or talked to like you’re a hypochondriac, a junkie or mentally ill.” “doctors acting like I’m crazy.” “being told over and over that ‘everything’ is normal—but I know it isn’t.” […]

 APRIL 6 – 13, 2019 NATIONAL PORPHYRIA AWARENESS WEEK Finally! An organization that understands… The New York State Rare Disease Alliance: A Place for Patients and Caregivers Who are the True Experts in Rare and Complex Disease Care This is why Closed Facebook Forums dedicated to Porphyria were established long ago and have continued to flourish […]

To all my porph friends—patients, caregivers, their friends and family members, I apologize for having fallen off the face of the earth for a while though I tend to do that when the porph devil’s dancing in Jill’s liver and overdoing things again. Because of that, I’ve been back on the exhausting documentation trail—and once […]

Well, well, well. Seems something has gotten under the skin of some porph ivory tower dwellers and hangers-on. Mama Canary doesn’t kowtow to manipulative gaslighting—and knows what she reads. Methinks this individual and her followers need to review what “she” herself wrote in her 2014 memoir —and what she wrote nine years later. To clear […]

On 4/3/2018 Huffpost published an article about home genetic tests titled “Home Genetic Tests May be Riddled with Errors, and Companies Aren’t Keeping Track” written by Anna Almendrala. It’s a great title; really draws attention. But it doesn’t tell the full story of how to find out if a snp is active or not. I […]

If anyone wants to learn about real heroes, all one has to do is tune into closed FB porphyria forums. Tossed aside because they haven’t achieved a “real” diagnosis (as Desiree Lyon Howe articulated during the March 1, 2017 FDA/APF meeting—evidentially to her, “real”  means confirmed by APF “experts”), these remarkably brave patients cope with […]

If the illness doesn’t kill you, the medical bills just might. Look elsewhere for answers. For an eye- and mind-opening information (and review of a documented case history) , check out 2018 STILL FEAR-RIDDEN, FRUSTRATED, FORGOTTEN AND FED-UP: Patients with Atypical Acute Porphyria Presentation STILL Stuck in Urinary Diagnostic Quagmire    

It is Rare Disease Week on Capitol Hill (2/25-3/1/2018) and I have some great news to share. In the midst of writing my 2018 FFFF white paper (this year titled STILL FEAR-RIDDEN, FRUSTRATED, FORGOTTEN AND FED-UP: Atypical Acute Porphyria Patients STILL Stuck in Urinary Diagnostic Quagmire), I was presented with some game-changing information. There is […]

From the 1958 article “Porphyria in Africa” by A.G. Shaper, section titled “The Urine in Acute Intermittent Porphyria”: “To complicate matters, in a recent survey of 80 cases seen  at the Mayo Clinic it was noted that no porphobilinogen was found in nine cases with severe CNS involvement and in six cases with abdominal crisis…It should […]