Your Blood Supplement - Part 2

This is the second part of the information I sent to the Independent for their Your Blood supplement.

It is being published tomorrow Friday 2 September - I'll put the link on here in due course.

Your Blood - Part 2

The next major challenge was, unsurprisingly, when my periods started.  This was a moment my mum had dreaded and it lived up to her expectations.  I bled for weeks each time with very little break in between periods.  I was treated often – by now the treatment was injections of clotting factor manufactured from many blood donations – and also spent a good deal of time as an in-patient having blood transfusions. My teenage years were interesting to say the least.

I was referred to an enthusiastic gynaecologist at the age of around 14 to see if my periods were so bad because of a gynae problem, but no, it was just my bleeding disorder.  He did however experiment with the hormone pill until we found a high enough dose to control the bleeding in some way that meant I didn’t have to go to hospital multiple times every period and could try and resume a normal teenage life.
 
My other issue during this time was that I had a number of spontaneous internal bleeds that required investigation and aggressive treatment and meant a good deal more time in hospital and off school.  These were bleeds that were not caused by anything specific and that I only knew about because of the extreme pain and swelling.  However I managed still to get both my GCSEs and my A levels and went off to university feeling really grown up.  

By this time I had taught myself how to self administer the injections.  This changed my life totally because we no longer needed to be within a safe distance of a hospital but I could take my treatment with me and go anywhere – I really felt like the world was my oyster!

To be continued ...