if you care to...tell me what testing you've had done in regards to blood work...and give me a run down of primary complaints. Its something I dont suck at; figuring out obscure things.

good luck...hope you recoup well..let me know when youre able and get the results

Thx 4 the research Shirl. I'll look into it.

The procedure went well. He said he removed a significant piece of swollen synovial tissue. Now it's the wait for pathology game
Taking a few days off from the keyboard. Will talk to you again soon.

I was lookin around and...chelation seems to be a viable option for tissues in conjunction with the phlebotomy threatments but it needed to be specific because several therapies will actually draw more iron out of foods. Have you been given a diet to follow as well?

I like when they get all indignant when I question their thought processes, and then when I pull out my medical records and show them how off the mark some "experts" were, they become a little more open to dialect.

You have to be proactive to get the quality of care you deserve, and it helps to have the medical knowledge you have. I have to learn as I go

Im sorry to hear all of that...I remember something else about this that may be nothing but can't totally form the thought..I'll get back to you it..haha..anyway..yeah A doctor that actually wants to know "why" is invaluable. Ive been to a few bad drs but luckily see a pretty group now. At least it was caught before it became more severe. it probably doesn't make you feel great to know it could have been caught a long time ago if anyone had looked for it. Youd think it would something a rheumatologist would catch. if it makes you feel any better I had to actually fight for a cancer diagnoses...sometimes the medical field is astonishingly incompetent

Thanks for your concern. It's my understanding damage caused by iron overload isn't reversible. Arthropathy is prob in my future from here on out. Could have been worse, if the GP didn't catch it, it would have led to major organ damage, often undetected.


After many knucklehead docs I actually respect my current one. She's on LSU's Med School faculty and seems to search for scientific evidence, hence the biopsy.

I obv have no idea but I wonder if your body would try to uptake the stuff already in tissues if they got you to anemic levels with the blood letting ..or if even leaches could get it out of tissue
kind of thinking "out loud"..nobody has offered a solution? why are they doing the biopsy? just to see how bad it is? Im sorry youre in pain. my last post was supposed to say new diagnosis

went to a ton of Rheumatologist & Orthoopedist in the last couple of years. My GP picked up on the spike Fe level in blood tests. Genetic test from Mayo Clinic confirmed H63D mutation. Liver biopsy showed 1+ out of 4 for iron overload. Therapeutic phelbotomies dropped my Fe level back to norm, but you can't "de-ironize" Fe already in tissue/joints.

the best answer I've ever gotten was that perhaps my thyroid gave me a reduced rate of absorption...I have a lot of a problems with iron, B vits and vit D..and my diet doesn't seem to be the cause...I tend to show a low RBC count and a high WBC count with an absence of evidence of infection. Is this a diagnosis for you?