Medical stuff…

Sometimes a younger medical professional is willing to connect different things in a new way and you’re able to get some help for the things that you’re dealing with. This is a slightly bumpy ride… buckle up, keep your hands and arms inside the carpet, we’re off! (Yes, paraphrasing Genie.)

I’ve told people for decades that I have thick blood. I have clogged up the needles when trying to donate to Red Cross, I’ve clogged up the needles when I tried to sell plasma, I scab up very fast when I get cuts, and so on. Not one doctor (and I’ve seen a lot) ever went further than basic questions (though, there was one in Barberton who put me on a diuretic for a while). Until this year. When I brought it up in April to a new PCP, she started asking more questions and sent me to a hematologist. He ran several tests and transferred me to another hematologist who did more tests and sent me to a rheumatologist. It turns out that I have Factor II Mutation, along with other “thick” blood stuff (anti-cardiolipin IgM, IgA, Beta-2-GPI), and late-onset SLE (systemic lupus erythematosis).

That’s a lot, huh? Well, the good news is that the gingko biloba that I started taking to improve my circulation back in April 2025 has been helping a lot more than I thought. I started taking it to help mitigate edema (I wrote about that a while back) and it was working well. That continues to help with the Factor II and other blood stuff. I was told to start taking 81mg aspirin and, after a little trial and error, discovered that it’s not quite strong enough to keep my legs from swelling, so I take both (yes, it’s all in my chart… I make sure to let everyone know what I’m taking). The scary part is that the blood tests results were so high even with an active blood thinner in my system. What does this part mean? It means that I’m much more likely to get blood clots than most people. The first hematologist said that each item in my chart increased my risk by threefold. So… 1) Factor II, 2) IgM, 3) GPI – 3%x3x3x3. That’s how he explained it to me. So, if a healthy person has a 3% chance for a clot, my risk is about 81%. Of course, that scared the jeebies out of me, but he was also fascinated that I haven’t had a major clot or stroke before now. Yay, me, for not smoking, heavily drinking, and so on.

Now for the SLE… Apparently, when it’s something that you get later in life, it’s often more mild and gradual in progression. According to a few articles on NIH, I have a moderate chance of this staying mild for the remainder of my life. As long as I take good care of myself by eating well, doing gentle exercise (yoga, qigong, walking, etc.), trying to avoid a lot of stress (yeah, that one isn’t going to be easy), and avoiding overdoing things I should be able to keep the worst of this at bay. Oh, and taking the medications prescribed to me. Currently, that is hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), which takes one to three months to start seeing benefits. I started taking this at the beginning of September and haven’t noticed much just yet, but I’m also keeping notes about aches, fatigue, sleep, and more. What does that do? Apparently, it is supposed to help my healthy cells avoid being attacked by my immune system. Which is what lupus does (I’m still learning a lot so I might be wrong in how I describe things); it causes my immune system to attack my healthy cells which can lead to all kinds of stuff from inflammation (least concern) to organ failure (absolute worst case scenario).

With all that being said, I’m still absorbing most of this. I’m trying to not be maudlin about it all, trying to see the possibilities, and trying to navigate the future.

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In other news, I’ve been fostering a kitten that was found behind the garage on June 20th. He was about a month old and was pretty much fur and bones at that point. After caring for him for a couple weeks (and getting him checked out), I let him into the rest of the house with my cats. He and Khaleesi had an agreement that he would leave her alone and she wouldn’t suffocate him. Ofelia? Well, she’s still wavering back & forth between tolerating him and wanting to beat the daylights out of him. He got neutered a little while after Khaleesi passed and continued to stay in the bathroom while healing. Now he has free run of the place, much to Ofelia’s dismay. Am I keeping him? There are still several days when I think I’ll be happy if he gets adopted, but it’s leaning toward adding him to the family. It would be lovely if he and Ofelia could get along, though. Maybe when he’s a little older.

The weather finally has begun to cool off here. We went from temperatures in the 90s to highs in the upper 60s and lower 70s. I still have a window a/c installed and will likely be taking it out in the next week or so (with help since the darn thing weighs a ton). The leaves are barely starting to change color, though. There are a few branches here and there with bits of red on the ends, but not much more than that. I’m not looking forward to the cold, but I’m already somewhat prepared with heavy curtains, floor blankets (they’re too heavy for me to sleep under), and thick plastic for the windows. I do need more wool socks, but I’ll get to that soon.

That’s it for now. Be well. Take care of yourselves. Hug your loved ones.