Monday, April 4, 2011

From a different point of view

So, today I had an interview for a magazine in the states. They are writing an article about how social media is connecting people in the Hemophilia community and decided to write and article about me. I am really looking forward to reading it and I really enjoyed doing the interview today. I will post it as soon as it comes out. In other news I have been told that I use too many exclamation points so I am putting a stop to that!
This post is from a friend I work with on the National Youth Committee of the Canadian Hemophilia Society. His writing shows how Hemophilia affects not only the person living with Hemophilia, but also, the family. I hope you like his writing as much as I did! Also for the french translation visit http://generation-clot.blogspot.com/.



How Hemophilia has affected my life: from a different point of view.


I would like to start off by saying, unlike most writers on this blog. I do not have hemophilia, or von willebrand or any bleeding disorder of any sort; in fact you could say I am the exact opposite. My wounds heal extremely (and I do not use that term lightly) fast. Recently I have suffered a VERY bad wound while working which involved me slicing my arm open near my wrist and cutting some serious veins opened, so we rushed to emergency. When we arrived I took the towel off my arm, which was soaked in blood off to the surprise of my wound not bleeding what so ever. The doctor was astonished that it was not bleeding. He proceeded to tell me that it should have been a life threading injury and was puzzled how it healed so fast. Well that all about me, now for the good stuff

So you are probably now wondering how I am even connected to hemophilia after hearing that little blurb. Well ill start off at the beginning of this. My younger brother was born 3 years after me. About the time he was 1-2 years old he kept getting swollen arms and knees, we would keep taking him to the doctor he when through lots of x-rays and they could never figure anything was wrong, so he would end up getting casts because they thought he had broken something. Now for whatever reason when he was about 3 years old they decided to do some blood work on him, and they came back with some strange results, he was a severe hemophilia A. at first my parents had no idea what this was nor did any of my family. That is right none of my family back further then 120 years had and bleeding disorder that we knew of. My entire family and I (from my generation to my great grandparents) went through numerous blood tests (which I did not enjoy one bit being 6 years old) and came up with nothing after 3 tries for all of us! So they finally labeled it as a genetic mutation. We first went to a Nova Scotia hemophilia family weekend and meet a load of new people that had the same problems and they were all very nice and we had a great time. They had made it easier for my parents and my brother in many ways, including stress relief. My Father went on to become the president of the NS chapter for numerous years.

Now I am getting older and I would love to help give back to the Hemophilia society. I have been volunteering with our provincial summer camp for 4 years, which is a blast every year, for young and old! And now I am part of the national Youth committee. Everyone I have ever met from the effect of hemophilia is amazing, and I believe that hemophilia has changed my life for the better! I hope to someday be a “big wig” somewhere, anywhere! I could help out in this massive loving society. And to give back what was given to my family while struggling with my brother diagnosis of hemophilia. In this community you don’t have to have a bleeding disorder to fit in, you just need a passion. Anyone can help out here, bleeding disorder or not!



6 comments:

  1. Its amazing how the bleeding stopped for you so soon. You sound like someone with a mutation that helps the body heal :) . Thanks for helping my kind. May you get loads of peace and happiness in ur life.

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  2. I agree Dhawal! Very interesting!! Now if we only had more volunteers like him! I'm hoping he will write more soon! Thanks for reading!

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  3. I'm glad to hear you are moderating your exclamation points! LOL
    Looking forward to reading that article about you. Thanks for sharing the other blog post too -- my parents came from N.S.
    When I was very young the hematologist tested my parents blood to see if it clotting more quickly than normal... it was a theory at the time. But, my parents tests were normal. I have no fibrinogen, so my blood does not clot at all.

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  4. Thank you so much for reading and commenting. Glad to hear your parents are happy and healthy!
    What do you use for treatment??

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  5. Good to see a blog spreading hemophilia awareness... i too have hemophilia with factor 8 and i live in india...
    We are spreading awareness here let globally everyone know what hemophilia is...

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  6. it's great to see someone without the disease helping the cause! keep it up! us bleeders appreciate you!

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