Awareness for the disease Avascular Necrosis (AVN)

There are thousands of people of all ages that have been affected by this rare disease including myself called Avascular necrosis. This disease goes through several different stages and can often be overlooked or misdiagnosed. Unfortunately I am one of the many that was not diagnosed early enough to prevent having my hips replaced because of it. Some of the factors that cause this are the excessive use of alcohol, steroids, trauma, sickle cell anemia, arthritis and lupus. All of these can contribute to blood loss from bone. Although it is unknown exactly what causes this condition. Avascular necrosis can also occur without any conditions of these risk factors being present. All of the bones in the body can be affected by Avascular necrosis. It can render the person to be in severe pain as well as lead to deterioration of the joints. The femur bone in the thigh is most commonly affected, causing pain in the hip and knee. Also the ankles, shoulders, and jaw are also commonly affected by this disease too. Avascular necrosis can occur in more than one part of the body during its life long course of the condition, either at the same or different times. I have designed and created an awareness ribbon for this silent rare disease. The colors of the ribbon are blue (faith), green (hope) and purple (peace). I created the ribbon in 2014.