Von Willebrand Disease In Humans...

by Sentinel 4 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  Sentinel

  I have personally taken an avid interest in this unusually named disease. My mother was due to have her open heart surgery on the 30th of April, and at the very last instant, she says that the "doctor" had not picked up on the history of her "bleeding problems". So minutes from surgery, everything was stopped. She tells me that they had to stop the surgery to do these additional blood tests, and that this is what they came up with.

  I'm finding that most of the population has this to a degree, and that that "degree" can vary due to diet and medications. My question to mom was if most of the population has this desease, and it can greatly affect the surgeon while doing the operation, why isn't the test performed as part of the Pre-surgical examination? She had no answer for this. I'm just attempting to take this new information that she has presented her family with, and try to make sense out of it.

  EVERYONE knew she had a history of bleeding excessively under "normal" circumstances, and in one surgery performed several years back. She had given them all of this information. Yet, she says they never performed the simple test to find out if she had this platelet problem in constructing the clotting factor. This is shocking to me, as I would think that surgeons would certainly want to know the risk under which they are performing.

  Does anyone have any additional information on this subject, also called VWD? Mom says treatment for it is very simple and she will be able to have the surgery the end of June;.---yet they would not have "missed" this in her case, and she would have probably bled to death, due to not taking any whole blood. Something just doesn't sound right to me.

  /<
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  Angharad

  This is the blood condition that I have, and most of the female side of my family has it also to varying degrees. My niece has it very severely, she gets very bad nose bleeds, and has been admitted it hospital loads of times with servere bleeding that has made her blood count drop to worrying levels(also the added complication of JW blood issue)

  I think there are a number of medications they can give before surgery to thicken the blood (DDAVP, Transanamic acid and factor 8).

  Hope all goes well with your mum's surgery.
• 

  Valis

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer
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  Gordy

  My mother had Von Willebrands Disease. I have it to a lesser degree. My daughter has it fully.
  

  When my mother was diagnosed with it in 1967 only 5 people in Britain were known to have it.

  It is an hereditary disease. It was explained to me as a weakness in the capillaries of the blood vessels. Sometimes accompanied by a lack of clotting agent factor 8 in the blood, but not as much as a heamophiliac. It can affect females more than males.

  I too suffer from regular nose bleeds because of it, occasionally being pretty heavy. Because over time I suffer blood loss I have to take iron tablets, every so often, to counteract the anaemia.
• 

  Sentinel

  Thanks for your replies. I have done lots of research on the Internet, but was just wondering if anyone here had any first-hand experience with it.

  Angharad, sounds like you know all about this VWD. If it shows in a family, there are usually several females who have the same problem. Yes, when a JW has that disease, it can cause even more stress, due to not taking blood as well.

  I know that when I was young, I was anemic, but since then, with proper diet and taking care of myself, I no longer suffer from iron deficiency. I used to have very heavy periods, and a time when I had quite a few nose-bleeds. Only once was I sent to the ER by ambulance because of a nose-bleed. That was around ten years ago, while at work, I answered a phone call, and began to cough. The coughing became a stragulating kind of choke, and I suddenly began bleeding from my nose profusely. It frightened everyone, as it sprayed over everything. Everyone tried to be helpful, but it was way out of control, so they sent me onto the hospital by ambulance and they had to cauterize a vessel in my nose. That was the last incident I ever had. I've had several surgeries through the years, and no one ever indicated that I had a bleeding problem. I don't believe I've inherited this malady.

  /<