So, What does FMF Look Like?

The thing about Genetic Diseases is that you can actually look at and see the problem. You can't do a lot to fix the problem, as it's impossible to alter your own dna at home, but you can certainly look at those fancy little legs and wonder just what the hell went wrong.

I think this is a nice example of your different chromosomes:



You can see how any of those coloured areas can be altered, by chance, by fate, whatever you call it, to become shortened, lengthened, etc.

#16 is the gene in question here.

There's this atypical rash some FMF patients get and trying to find a picture of that was really hard until someone recently published one. But we don't really want to see rashes.

FMF, image wise, is elusive. There's no photos of spots, stripes, flames, fur or otherwise anything unique to mark people with FMF. Considering the regions where FMF is mostly found we might never see populations publishing themselves as FMF patients due to the respect they give modesty.

Which is a shame because I was really hoping you got like a turquoise tinge to your skin after a few years and people would be able to recognize you and tell you that you're going to get better. But it doesn't seem to be happening.

So, instead, you get little online cartoons to help aid students learning.

Like this one:



or this one:



And finally, this is a graphic aid used by some websites to explain how FMF travels as it's a recessive gene:



See that little pink girl. Yeah, that's me.