Defying all odds, 27-year-old Admire Mninginisi is determined to live a normal life. It was twelve years ago when he noticed symptoms of pachydermoperiostosis (PDP), a condition that would change his life forever.
“I was born normal,” he told SM Digital, before explaining how things took a sharp turn the day he noticed swelling on his ankles, back in 2010. Thus began the life-changing rollercoaster that had doctors confused and robbed him of his youth.
“They never really knew what was troubling me, although they had suspicions that I might be suffering from heart failure or kidney failure, but it was none of that,” said Mninginisi.
Two years later, doctors determined that he was suffering from a disease called rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is an autoimmune and inflammatory condition in which the immune system attacks healthy cells in the body, leading to inflammation (painful swelling). However, subsequent tests revealed Mninginisi was in fact suffering from Pachydermoperiostosis (PDP).
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Diagnosis and treatment
After unsuccessfully enquiring from doctors around his hometown of Giyani, LP, Mninginisi sought assistance from doctors in Polokwane, LP. With no luck, he eventually relocated to Johannesburg, GP, in search of treatment.
It was only around two years since the onset of symptoms that Mninginisi finally received treatment. Even this, however, was largely unsuccessful and the diagnosis would soon change.
“There was no improvement; the condition was getting worse. The face was still fine, only the joints were swollen. Around 2019, I stopped all those treatments and decided to start looking for help all over,” said Mninginisi.
“It was getting worse day-by-day [and] year-by-year,” he said.
Eventually, he returned to Polokwane where a new doctor ran several tests which led to a new diagnosis: pachydermoperiostosis (PDP). He has since been receiving treatment, however this too has been challenging due to a shortage of medicine.
Pachydermoperiostosis causes clubbing of the fingers, pachyderma, and profuse perspiration (hyperhidrosis). It usually first manifests throughout childhood or adolescence, frequently just before puberty, and advances slowly.
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‘I want a normal life’
Since the early symptoms, Mninginisi has bravely stood up to his condition and the stigma that surrounds it. All he really wants, he said, is to lead a normal life.
“It was not only a matter of my health, but also a matter of my life in general,” he said.
Despite the impact of pachydermoperiostosis on his education, Mninginisi triumphantly graduated from a course in hospitality.
“This condition has robbed me of a lot of things in my youth days,” he added. “I never really had a girlfriend or such stuff because I have been placing my focus on the condition, trying to find health,” he said.
“I really do hope that one day I will have a wife, have kids [and] have a happy family… be normal like everyone else,” he said, adding that “I do understand that it might take time [but] that’s how it is.”
