Bruce's Posts

So here four years later still doing fine. I learned something new. I had lumbar surgery scheduled and was ready to go into surgery, but they cancelled my surgery until I saw hematologist. He said if you bleed after surgery you have a good chance of becoming paralyzed. Turns out I am a hemophilia A which explains some of my bleeding problems from colon polyp removal and after having aortic valve replace. My brother, unusual my daughter and also one of my grandsons are hemophilia A. I suggest if you have a family history get checked as I am now a bleeder on warfarin and it may have made a different in my choice of going with a mechanical valve. My PC was surprised that after having a dozen surgeries and my age that it was never discovered. Until I made a list of my surgeries and every instance of a bleeding problem including non surgery he said you have a bleeding problem we will make sure you get into hematologist. Found out going over medical records of 20 years nobody ever did an aptt blood test until after I had heart surgery. It is a basic blood clotting test and then they do other test to check which clotting factors are off. You have to be off blood thinners to get the testing done. So now I have a plan and can reschedule my back surgery.

So I just had some lab work and I am still pretty anemic. I know last the last time I received blood it took almost 6 months to get to normal levels. Receiving 6 units this time I hope it does not take longer. Still by the end of the day I am tired, so tired but I think more active than before.