...with no one to blame but myself...

This past week, I turned 48. I can recall being about 13, contemplating how old I would be in 2000 and thinking, "Damn...that's old...". Now I think, "Damn, 33 is like a baby...". I have always loved my birthdays. I celebrate each one with gusto, dictating what people should get me if they choose to get me presents and making certain everything is all about me. Why should I compromise on that? It was in that spirit that I decided, "I am going to have a great, big, bloody steak for dinner when we go out to celebrate." And that is exactly what I flippin' did, telling our server that I wanted it, "...as rare as you can legally get it." And you know what? It was everything I had hoped it would be...

 

The week of my birthday was sprinkled with little dietary rebellions of this nature. Some chicken livers and heart while making a whole chicken for dinner on Tuesday, a beer (yes, only one) with sushi lunch on Thursday, Taco Bell for lunch on Friday, a wonderful steak dinner with family on Saturday. I justified it all with the thought, "I just had a phlebotomy treatment ahead of all of these minor transgressions and hey, it's my birthday, dammit...". Plus, I had just logged my most significant drop in ferritin levels the week previous. Everything should be ok, right? I might see some variation, but it shouldn't be that much of a change, right?

 

Ah. Well...the gods laugh when a mortal thinks they have control over anything, don't they?

 

Those singular incidents, those minor transgressions served to pump my ferritin levels so much that the numbers effectively wiped out the drops from the past two treatments. Yep. The past two treatments.

 

Observe:

12/26/14 - 1016ng/mL

01/02/15 - 795ng/mL

01/15/15 - 1097ng/mL

 

This has been telling. I was curious how quickly my body loads iron. All I have seen up to this point were the drops and felt great about my dietary approach in combination with the treatments, that everything was progressing the way it should be. But there it is; the numbers do not lie. And I can't blame anything other than myself for it.

 

Do I feel guilty? Honestly, not really. I had known that enjoying my birthday on the level I wanted to would affect my numbers. I was prepared for that. So this is really not a shock on any level. But it also gives me an idea of how quickly and by what degree my body loads iron.

 

Now I just have to wait for that note from my doctor asking what the hell happened...

Bedside manners...

Going on record to say that I much prefer a woman handling my treatments than a guy. It isn't so much that I am sexist...it just seems that female RNs seem to lean toward having a better ability to make everything more comfortable.

 

Lets take my last two treatments as examples. The RN who has handled my treatments the last couple of times knows that she needs a smaller gauge needle for my veins, that my veins are not at all fond of being poked and require some inducement via wrapping my arm in a heating blanket in order to come to the surface, and her technique used inserting the needle and setting up the accoutrements is gentle and efficient.

 

By contrast, the male RN I had this last treatment sort of gave me crap for always using the same arm (its the best vein, dude), literally jabbed the needle into my arm, and then passive/aggressively complained that should I be assigned someone else my next visit, to make certain they make multiple appointments in the future as they tend to forget and I might not get the time I want (have not actually had a problem with that yet, but ok...).

 

My reactions at the time? What do YOU think? The guy was sticking me with a needle and taking my blood. Would you give him any shit? Exactly.

Ferritin Fun

As mentioned previously, the standard treatment for hemochromatosis is phlebotomy, i.e., bloodletting. To give you a better idea as to how effective it can be, I would like to share the progression of degrees by which my ferritin levels have decreased. As a reminder, ferritin is used as a marker for iron overload disorders. The normal/standard range is between 22ng/mL and 365ng/mL. At the beginning of this little adventure, you may recall that my levels were at 1295ng/mL; extremely high, to say the least. Here are all of my levels to date:

 

10/16/14 - 1295ng/mL

12/04/14 - 1233ng/mL

12/17/14 - 1124ng/mL (after 1st treatment)

12/26/14 - 1016ng/mL (after 2nd treatment)

01/02/15 - 795ng/mL (after 3rd treatment)

 

After only three treatments to date, my ferritin levels have dropped 500ng/mL, with the highest drop occurring after the most recent appointment (221ng/mL!). Not too bad. Not too bad at all. At this rate I think it is conceivable to only have perhaps seven or eight more weekly treatments before achieving the goal of 50ng/mL. Then, I assume, we examine how quickly my body "loads" and adjust the actual frequency of my treatments.

 

Pretty good news to start 2015 with!