December 2021

Confirmation of Diagnosis

Phlebotomy number 4 was a difficult one. Was stuck 4 times before they could draw blood. It was painful as they tried to fine the vein, but I’ve come this far and I wasn’t prepared to give up. Took 4 nurses to get it. Felt bad for them, but we all have a good laugh. I kinda look forward to these now.

But the big news was that the doc came and saw me mid bleed. He had my results of my blood test for hereditary hemochromatosis. So this test looks for the genes as this is inherited from parents. And Erin nailed it. She told me I had it all those months ago and it turns out I have not one, but two genes that I inherited from both parents. It’s the H63D gene. So it’s great I know this for sure now and it’s shocking that both my parents had it without knowing.

Now my dad had major issues in the later part of his life. He had hiatal hernia which was never really sorted. He had complex problems with his gut and ultimately died of cirrhosis of the liver and pancreatitis. Now the liver issue he had would have largely been part of his drinking, but even so, had functional medicine been around in his day (30 years ago), who knows how much better his life could have been. His condition was never diagnosed and all his treatments were essentially aimed at the symptoms of his condition and not the source.

Jump back to 2021 and I am so grateful for Erin and functional medicine that I now don’t have the same route to follow as my father. Knowing it’s power and what it does, it’s actually scary that this isn’t the first port of call. Surely it’s better to get all blood panels done and identify potential problems ahead of time and solve them when they are easier to solve. It would save a fortune in both time and money.

I feel extremely lucky because my doctor may never have picked up on this either. Or he may have when it was too late.