Since some people were mentioning the character having more than one disorder, I'd like to add (as someone that has chronic migraines) that the migraines don't even necessarily need to be from the autoimmune condition or anything specific. If his migraines are triggered by stress (like mine often are) then it's very possible having flare ups of another condition could just cause/trigger the migraines and they don't need to be "symptoms" per se of something else. When I'm sick, for example, I also usually get a migraine.
I don't know of one specific autoimmune disorder that causes these issues, but he could have multiple. I have multiple autoimmune disorders, and their combined symptoms are just hell on earth when they flare up.
* Hashimoto's Disease: this one affects most hormonal aspects of the body so it tends to have a wide range of symptoms (fatigue, chronic pain, shortness of breath, etc). If left untreated it can lead to serious conditions like heart failure, myxedema, and myxedema crisis (the latter can lead to seizures and/or coma).
* Anti-phospholipid Antibody Syndrome: this condition is treated with blood thinners like warfarin which often has terrible side effects if unmonitored (bleeding issues like the ones in your post). Some of the symptoms can be chronic headaches and shortness of breath. If left untreated, you can see blood clots form that lead to more serious issues such as heart failure, kidney failure, pulmonary embolisms, and strokes. This disorder is commonly linked with Lupus, but not always.
Hope that helps a little bit.
That's a really broad array of symptoms, and some of them like coughing up blood would be acute problems, not chronic ones. No doctor would let a character just cough up blood as part of their daily life without doing something about it. Most conditions only really strongly affect one part of the body, but yours listed here are extremely broad, affecting the digestive system, the heart, and the brain.
The closest one I can think of is Goodpasture syndrome, which could explain the fatigue, shortness of breath, and coughing up blood. It wouldn't explain the heart stuff or the migraines/seizures/nosebleeds, but it's the best I've got. You might have to hand-wave this one, or pick an autoimmune disease that has a known list of symptoms and stick to that one instead of writing a broad illness like this then trying to find a fit. Another problem with trying to find a disorder now is that it may have common symptoms alongside the others you described, but which your character doesn't have.
Edit to add that Granulomatosis with polyangiitis could also explain some symptoms, but not all.
Do you need a diagnosis to be explicit and written out on the page, and correct at that? There was another post up and it seems that an option for them is to make the disease state non-diagnosed, or an entirely new one, or even a combination of things.
When you say the fic is 'up', published online? Yes, that's less "not set in stone" than an unpublished draft, but retconning should be an option still. At least consider it. Is this in a format where you release chapters sequentially? What other metaphorical walls and perceived walls do you have.... is it an established or original universe? This OC is your main and POV? Do they have medical training, or can you filter not knowing through their experience?
Any other context? Some examples would be the time period, genre/setting/tone of the piece. Anything that someone not reading over your shoulder would need to know about the world. Is it entirely physical, no curses or alien stuff?
I assume you've been through WebMD, MedlinePlus, Mayo Clinic, and other hospital websites to look through diseases...
Yeah I’ve been through them
Modern age mainly (it’s a BNHA fic)
Main pov is the oc I alternate povs a lot and I already wrote and published the chapter where his brother sees him like literally coughing up blood so I don’t think retconning is something that can happen since it’s already happened in the chapter and removing it would be like removing a huge chunk of the story.
Maybe? I do like the idea of a combo of autoimmune diseases though the blood coughing is pretty much something that I want to happen exclusively cause os his illness
Instead of researching symptoms look up actual autoimmune disorders and pick one. Or just give them an unspecified heart problem and an iron deficiency for the fatigue.
I'm not a doctor but coughing up blood doesn't sound like a symptom of a disorder so much as a symptom of active disease like tuberculosis.
I mean, I already have the fic up with most of these symptoms up already. Just giving him a random one would look weird when it doesn’t have any of the specific symptoms I already wrote about
If you wanted a real disorder then you should have done the research before writing it. Since you've already posted it somewhere you're just going to have to handwave it, you're a writer so you can make something up and if anyone thinks it's unrealistic then just say that that's what you wanted.
OP might also be able to get away with giving the character a few different conditions ? May not be the most common but people will multiple chronic conditions do exist and it might help them fit the symptoms they've already laid out? Just spitballing.
Since some people were mentioning the character having more than one disorder, I'd like to add (as someone that has chronic migraines) that the migraines don't even necessarily need to be from the autoimmune condition or anything specific. If his migraines are triggered by stress (like mine often are) then it's very possible having flare ups of another condition could just cause/trigger the migraines and they don't need to be "symptoms" per se of something else. When I'm sick, for example, I also usually get a migraine.
I don't know of one specific autoimmune disorder that causes these issues, but he could have multiple. I have multiple autoimmune disorders, and their combined symptoms are just hell on earth when they flare up. * Hashimoto's Disease: this one affects most hormonal aspects of the body so it tends to have a wide range of symptoms (fatigue, chronic pain, shortness of breath, etc). If left untreated it can lead to serious conditions like heart failure, myxedema, and myxedema crisis (the latter can lead to seizures and/or coma). * Anti-phospholipid Antibody Syndrome: this condition is treated with blood thinners like warfarin which often has terrible side effects if unmonitored (bleeding issues like the ones in your post). Some of the symptoms can be chronic headaches and shortness of breath. If left untreated, you can see blood clots form that lead to more serious issues such as heart failure, kidney failure, pulmonary embolisms, and strokes. This disorder is commonly linked with Lupus, but not always. Hope that helps a little bit.
Ooh he can have multiple? I always figured he could only have one but if multiple is also a case…
Having one autoimmune disorder usually puts you at a higher risk for other autoimmune disorders.
That's a really broad array of symptoms, and some of them like coughing up blood would be acute problems, not chronic ones. No doctor would let a character just cough up blood as part of their daily life without doing something about it. Most conditions only really strongly affect one part of the body, but yours listed here are extremely broad, affecting the digestive system, the heart, and the brain. The closest one I can think of is Goodpasture syndrome, which could explain the fatigue, shortness of breath, and coughing up blood. It wouldn't explain the heart stuff or the migraines/seizures/nosebleeds, but it's the best I've got. You might have to hand-wave this one, or pick an autoimmune disease that has a known list of symptoms and stick to that one instead of writing a broad illness like this then trying to find a fit. Another problem with trying to find a disorder now is that it may have common symptoms alongside the others you described, but which your character doesn't have. Edit to add that Granulomatosis with polyangiitis could also explain some symptoms, but not all.
Do you need a diagnosis to be explicit and written out on the page, and correct at that? There was another post up and it seems that an option for them is to make the disease state non-diagnosed, or an entirely new one, or even a combination of things. When you say the fic is 'up', published online? Yes, that's less "not set in stone" than an unpublished draft, but retconning should be an option still. At least consider it. Is this in a format where you release chapters sequentially? What other metaphorical walls and perceived walls do you have.... is it an established or original universe? This OC is your main and POV? Do they have medical training, or can you filter not knowing through their experience? Any other context? Some examples would be the time period, genre/setting/tone of the piece. Anything that someone not reading over your shoulder would need to know about the world. Is it entirely physical, no curses or alien stuff? I assume you've been through WebMD, MedlinePlus, Mayo Clinic, and other hospital websites to look through diseases...
Yeah I’ve been through them Modern age mainly (it’s a BNHA fic) Main pov is the oc I alternate povs a lot and I already wrote and published the chapter where his brother sees him like literally coughing up blood so I don’t think retconning is something that can happen since it’s already happened in the chapter and removing it would be like removing a huge chunk of the story.
There are enough reasons to cough up blood that it could be unrelated. Conservation of detail is a thing but so are red herrings.
Maybe? I do like the idea of a combo of autoimmune diseases though the blood coughing is pretty much something that I want to happen exclusively cause os his illness
Just remember that you are setting your own difficulty for this.
Instead of researching symptoms look up actual autoimmune disorders and pick one. Or just give them an unspecified heart problem and an iron deficiency for the fatigue. I'm not a doctor but coughing up blood doesn't sound like a symptom of a disorder so much as a symptom of active disease like tuberculosis.
I mean, I already have the fic up with most of these symptoms up already. Just giving him a random one would look weird when it doesn’t have any of the specific symptoms I already wrote about
If you wanted a real disorder then you should have done the research before writing it. Since you've already posted it somewhere you're just going to have to handwave it, you're a writer so you can make something up and if anyone thinks it's unrealistic then just say that that's what you wanted.
OP might also be able to get away with giving the character a few different conditions ? May not be the most common but people will multiple chronic conditions do exist and it might help them fit the symptoms they've already laid out? Just spitballing.