Hemophilia & Osteoarthritis Dissecans?

I started thinking about Hemophilia again, after trying to donate at the Red Cross.

I have never been tested for it before and when I was asked if I'd ever been tested for it, on the East Coast, they didn't want to do it because they said it would be expensive. I'm pretty sure that's what they said.

I would like to be tested because I will be ruled in or out on different counts. It is very rare to show up in women, and usually symptoms will only present in boys.

However, it might be on both sides of the family. I have cousins who had repeated nosebleeds and my mother tried to say, when I complained about bruising on my son which wasn't normal and in the print of fingermarks, she went on about how she remembered I bruised very easily as a child.

I also had internal bleeding in the brain after an accident, which did resolve, and could have been a natural reaction or worsened if I do have hemophilia. The other thing is that I could not quit bleeding after the miscarriage. I almost died, literally, more than once, from that. Now that I think about it, there were problems getting me to stop bleeding after childbirth too, but I assumed that was because of the excessive trauma.

Finally, if I had had even a couple of bites of something with rat poison in it, when I already have an anti-coagulation problem, if someone believed I did have hemophilia they might assume I would be an easy kill. It might not have been just "a message" or "a warning". It could have been that someone really intended for me to bleed out. It could have been why, if I'd had just a little bit, blood just splashed out of me and in someone with hemophilia, maybe it wouldn't even require that much, but I don't know.

Which is odd, when I also think about how this one "friend" talked about some woman bleeding out, to death, on the side of the road.

On the other hand, I've been exposed to other sources of harm, which affected my blood I believe, and if I do not have any kind of hemophilia, it would place more of the irregularities in clotting and the constant bleeding, onto what I was exposed to instead. If I do not have hemophilia, why did I bleed so long?

I thought about this recently too, a few days ago when I noticed sort of odd bruising on my legs. If I stood up in the shower, it looked like there were little pools of blood, or odd bruising, under the skin in a couple of spots. But if I sat down and raised my legs, the bruising went away, the color of it did. So what does that mean? I don't know. It hasn't happened since. I mean, the bruises went away and I haven't noticed anything since then. Usually, if it's just a bruise, it doesn't matter if ones legs are raised or not, right? So what kind of bruise goes away after legs are lifted up?

I looked up hemophilia and while it's inherited, it's rare and even more rare to present in any form, in women. But after injury is sometimes when it shows up, if the bleeding doesn't stop. So I am interested in knowing and feel that I should have the testing done so I know for the future what this will mean for me. It will also help me figure some other things out.

I just read, that for a woman to have hemophilia, which is rare to begin with, she must receive the gene from not just her father but her mother as well. So, it said, the odds are highly unlikely and this is why it doesn't often occur in women--it's extremely rare but not impossible.

Maybe I have a mild form of it which showed up only under injuries, or maybe there has been something else affecting my blood.

I think my son has to be tested for it too, which is not something that anyone in the state or my family would ever come up with. Now that I think about it, he bled a lot when he was circumsized and the doctor said he couldn't "see" to do it because the bleeding was so profuse. He also had the hematoma which scabbed over and the bad bilirubin levels, from his head trauma (which were erased later from records I've discovered). It is possible that if he has a bleeding disorder, the head trauma created even more bleeding than would be common.

UPDATE: I'm glad I decided to sort of go back and skim a little more, because I made a new discovery and it might benefit my son. I really don't think he has hemophilia in general, but I do remember there was some bleeding, quite a bit, but still...I don't know. I'm glad I did opt for him to get his Vitamin K shot after he was born. But, he may have it if I do, and what is most interesting to me, is that it says it's not minor cuts and things that are a problem or very noticeable even, it's that internal bleeding can occur during the growth spurts and weaken joints, at younger ages and puberty.

This got me to wondering if possibly, if I have hemophilia of some form, if this could have contributed to more breakable bones or stress fractures or what I was diagnosed with when I first injured my knee: osteoarthritis dissecans. Because it says it can cause a premature type of arthritis! So, what if this happened and that's why? Which would be a very good thing to prevent happening to my son, because if he has a blood disorder like that, they can treat it with certain things and then maybe this is avoided. I don't know really, just a passing idea.

It says the most damage can be done between age 5 and age 15. So if my son is diagnosed now and it's caught, any problems could be completely avoided.

I have to get my son back. I know my aunt and uncle would never even think to take him in for this, and even if someone brought it up they wouldn't take the time or think it's necessary. But if I have it, and he got it from me, with kids there is really no way to tell until late.

Basically, it makes the most sense to see if I have it first. If I do, then move onto my son to look at diagnostics. http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/652/main.html.

I wonder if anyone has ever made a hemophilia/osteoarthritis dissecans connection before? probably...

Yes! I see it mentioned, that hemophilia can be a cause of osteoarthritis dissecans. Oh what a lucky day! I lost a running scholarship from possibly, something that could have been prevented, possibly, if I do in fact have hemophilia.

So this is really important to discover because it's latent in parents and damage can be prevented to children if they are diagnosed before age 5. Here is the link which shows osteoarthritis dissecans can be caused by hemophilia:
http://www.aolhealth.com/arthritis/learn-about-it/osteoarthritis/possible-causes-of-osteoarthritis.

I'm thinking though, for me personally, about a bike accident I had where maybe I first injured my knee? when I was 11 or so. I don't know. I know I have had very odd things happen with my blood and severe pain from sources which are not normal, and it's been, I now realize, finally, gang related. I never even thought about what it was stemming from before or why but for some reason, my son and I were targeted for gang violence. Gang violence doesn't have to mean we were involved in this kind of thing. It was probably that I offended a group with more power and money who had access to gang resources and they were turned on us...and this can even mean involvement of law enforcement and others who choose to be a part of such things.

So for me to completely sort out all my health stuff is more complicated. However, it's possible I have hemophilia. I've had anemia off and on as well, which is sometimes related, but really, I think it's hard for me to know when there were other things going on which might affect how blood coagulates. I would suspect I have it though, based on total health history. It could be that other things just worsen the situation but I don't know.

Rambling....but I hope this might help other parents and teens who could have hemophilia because if it's detected, it sounds like a lot of things can be prevented through certain medications.

This medical article states bleeding into joints and problems begin at age 2, not 5: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/401842-overview