Draining a pint of blood off each month?

oramar · Jun 17, 2003

Look for polycythemia or erythremia polycythemia or polycythemia vera in any medical book or medical search engine like webmd.com. It is overproduction of red blood cells that produces just the problems your friends mom experienced. Very sneaky disease because persons who have it enjoy good health in their youth not knowing their organs are slowly being destroyed. I heard one doctor on tv lamenting the fact that everyone in this country is not checked for it because it not an unusual disease and the earlier the diagnosis the better the prognosis. It is thought to run in families.

jemb · Jun 17, 2003

Also look under "hemochromatosis" . Blood has to be removed to keep the iron levels under control. Otherwise the excess iron stores in the tissues and can lead to sever organ (especially liver) damage after a number of years.

We use regular blood donor kits for our phlebotomy patients -- a big improvement over the leeches of times gone by! (Not sure they work a lot better, but most of the patients seem to prefer needles over bugs!)

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Jun 17, 2003

Please ask your friend if she was tested for the disease. My girlfriends daughter was DX 4 years ago with hemochromatosis, went on to have a successful pregancy and beautiful baby girl. Both parents carriers.

Early treatment key for long term survival.

uncRN · Jun 17, 2003

sounds like hemachromatosis...affects the liver..the patient makes too many rbc's...the opposite of anemia...sometimes requires liver transplant in the more serious cases

P_RN, ADN, RN · Jun 17, 2003

I have known many people with PCV who live around here. When I mentioned it to one of the heme-oncs at the hospital he was amazed because it is fairly rare. I wonder if living 25 mi from a nuclear facility has anything to do with it?