Re: Hemochromatosis- Sue my aunt had it

[Guest guest]

Sue,

My Aunt and Uncle had this disease. Unfortunately we only found out when my

Aunt was in the hospital on her death bed. They told us we all needed to get

a serum Ferritin level. It came out that my Uncle had it. He had a pint of

blood taken off about every 3 months. He never had much more of a problem

with it.

It also used to be called Bronze Dibates in the olden days.

I found out not to long ago that it is also an auto-immune disease. There

are not many cases of it seen, especially in smaller hospitals. We all

tested and had our kids tested. No one else was found to have it, I have

told my daughter to get her kids tested just to make sure. Small world,

isn't it

On Sat, Mar 14, 2009 at 10:53 PM, marysue <marysue@...> wrote:

> I recently found out that my first cousin's daughter has

> hemochromatosis, a disease in which iron builds up in various places

> in the body. She was concerned that I might have it, and urged me to

> get checked for it.

>

> So at my appointment on Wednesday, I asked my rheumy if he would check

> my iron. He agreed to do it. He said that I was the second patient

> this week who had found out about a family member with the disease.

>

> He checked several things connected with iron. Everything was within

> normal limits except transferrin, which was slightly high. From what

> I've read, being high is more indicative of an iron deficiency rather

> than an iron overload.

>

> I am relieved that I don't have to add another disease to my

> repertoire. I thought that I had more than my quota already, with RA,

> diabetes, Fuchs' corneal dystrophy, and a history of breast cancer and

> migraines. Yippee!

>

> Sue

>

>