Hemochromatosis: Three Years Later
This week marks 3 years since I was first diagnosed with Hemochromatosis and began getting regular phlebotomies. I can barely even believe it! If you’ve followed my journey you know, it’s been a roller coaster and a lot to deal with!
So, you’ve seen the blogs and videos on my journey, how to prepare for phlebotomies, my symptoms, and everything in between. However, I wanted to give you guys some more context on what this all means. Three years of phlebotomies? It’s hard to visualize.
Here’s the numbers:
3 years, 73 phlebotomies
Average of 2 phlebotomies per month, for 3 years
A phlebotomy is a fancy word for blood donation or blood letting. Each visit they take out 500 ML of blood from my system:
500 ML per visit and 72 visits so far
36,000 ML of blood taken out.
Equivalent to 9.5 gallons of blood.
Doesn’t that sound insane? That is a lot of blood and brings me to an important topic. All of my blood is discarded due to the high iron content and my sexual orientation. Can you imagine how many people 36,000 ML of blood could help? We have to change our perspectives and change the law. Allowing my blood to be donated and possibly help those with low iron.
This week we also tested my Ferritin or Iron levels. They are still going down! I am currently at 250. That is down 58 points since April. Which is good, especially considering I couldn’t give a full 500 ML the of blood the last two months. My body has just been stopping the blood flow, literally. It will just stop and not start again no matter what we do. It’s odd and frustrating. Something I need to talk to my Doctor about in September.
Thank you! Thank you all for following along in my journey and encouraging me along the way. It was been a game change for me and has helped me get through the tough times that come with Hemochromatosis. You are some of the best people I know and I hope you understand how much I appreciate you!
Thank you!
