I’m at the optimum level now. All I have been doing is getting more regular venesections. I’ll pay €150 notes to the consultant soon and he’ll tell me to go out to 3 or 6 monthly. It’ll creep up close to 300 after a couple of years. I’ll go back to the consultant pay another €150 and he’ll tell me I have to go back to monthly and it’ll get back down to under 100 in about 6 months and the cycle will start again.
It can be.
I know a girl who’s crippled from it - literally.
It can build up around your joints and fuck them up. Arthritis is a sign of it.
Can fuck up the organs too. Like overdosing on Iron
I’m crippled with it. Two knees replaced, ankles fucked, hands going that way. Can kill you if it gets if it gets in around your organs.
What age did you get a diagnosis?
Late 40s.
I guess that is a significant contributor.
I learned recently that the test sample goes to England and takes a month for a result.
Should really have been diagnosed sooner. GP failed to join the dots on various complaints.
What type of complaints were signs ?
Pains in the feet and hands that were diagnosed as gout. Chronic knee pain that was treated as common or garden arthritis. Discoloration of the skin on my shins (orange) that was treated as varicose veins (I was given a pair of tights to wear like an owl wan). All very strange complaints for a man in his 40s. There were other random complaints.
Could they not see it in the bloods?
These are Irish doctors we’re talking about. Wham, bam, thank you mam. And €60, while you’re at it.
In fairness my doctor clocked it straight away, for Dublin prices though - not €60. My ferritin was off the scale though
I never got a blood test until I got the first knee done.
That’s bizarre, surely the bloods is the first check they should’ve done
Im sure it runs in our family, my grandfather lost the top of his ring finger from the knuckle up from the tendons tightening, the father now is getting the claw hand and my last two fingers on each hand will never straighten. I’ve sore joints that i put down to wear and tear from a thousand odd soccer matches. I may get tested
Better than my grandfather having it diagnosed as an iron deficiency and being prescribed more iron.
It is hereditary. It is very prevalent in Ireland, particularly on the West side. It is also more prevalent in men
Crippled joints, arthritis (or what has been diagnosed as Arthritis) plus people in your family having hip replacements, dying from liver cancers etc are all signals in may have been in the family.
Not sure it has any effect on muscles. I would say what you are describing is a different Viking disease