Have i told ya? I found out a little while back that i have Hemochromatosis. It basically means that my body absorbs much more Iron than normal. My older sister found out she has it back in November. I call her Iron Maiden...pretty catchy huh. It is a hereditary thing, so i had my doctor check for and...i've got it too. As far as genetic things go, this isn't bad assuming you find out early like i have. I basically have to bleed my iron level down to a low level, then go 3-4 times a year to keep the level down. If I didn't find out till i was much older, i would have started having heart/liver problems and other issues. I have given 4 pints of blood in the past 5 weeks. I've got at least 9 more pints to go to get to the low level. This makes staying fit for cycling kind of tough. I'm basically riding as much as i can to slow down the loss of fitness. Hopefully i will be done with the weeklies by July and i can start building my hemoglobin/redbloodcells/ hemocrit back up. Would this justify EPO? will my insurance pay for it? I've basically scrapped any plans i had to race this spring/summer. I just hope i can stay in shape enough for cyclocross.
3 comments:
I am also an "Iron Maiden". I think I'll steal your term for use in my family. Unlike you, mine was not found early enough and my liver already shows some damage.
I live in California and the blood banks will not take my blood if they know of the hemochromatosis so I alternate every other month with the Red Cross and the SB Blood Bank. It's not often enough but will have to do for now.
I'm moving to South Carolina where the Iron Disorders Institute is located and, hopefully, I can be "bled" more often. Either that or I'm gonna have to invest in some leeches~ (ugh)
My family is 100% of Irish decent so my 3 sisters and my 3 daughters are also being tested. So much for the "Luck O the Irish", huh?
I hope you and your sister do well.
sorry about that deletion but I misspelled so many words that I couldn't leave it!
could be worse, you could have lead in your ass.
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