Tag: Iron

It Is a Long Way from Kansas – Cardiology

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The world is pretty fucked up right now. When the butcher of Khan Yunis is nominating B2- “Obliteration”- Boi Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize things are more than a little topsy-turvy. This is perhaps a new(ish) if twisted reality for our times. If you remember Franco, Mussolini at al., the unpleasant people, once formed a bad-boys club before and that turned out well…

The world is heading into a very nasty phase. Brutality is holding dominion over compassion and humanity. Rife me-first separatism is being propagated, decency {and common sense} is subdued by the practice of domination, coercion and forced submission. The disproportionate exercise of power is once more in flow. Waving cocks is once again sadly de rigueur.

It is along way from any idyllic Kansas of ere.

Today I get to find out if I have a heart amid all the high iron rust in my arteries and veins. They will probably plug me into the mains and look for traces of Fe2O3 in the pre-operative electrocardiogram. They may look for signs of a still pulsing muscle with an ultrasound device.

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By the 18th of July I will have had 13 medical appointments in a little under three weeks. I will have given blood, had a CT and separate radionuclide scan {bonus CT also included}, a colonoscopy and test for sleep apnoea. I will have seen GP, implant dentist and consultant orthopaedic surgeons, a cardiologist, an osteopath, a rheumatologist and a lung specialist. That is a fair clustering of appointments. My dance card has been and is still full. In August I get to see a urologist for an update on my high prostate specific antigen levels. The next line of attack after the high res MRI I already have had is a prostate biopsy. Yippee!!! That will be fun. You can see from the look on my face above when they try to put a finger on it.

And on the TV in the news we get to see a stage managed travesty as mentioned in the first paragraph…

Are we really in this parallel universe. How the hell did we as a humanity get to this low low place. How much lower must we sink?? When this sort of thing seems quasi-normal?

This stinks, it smells real bad…

Genetic Counsellors and Cans of Worms

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I learned a new phrase today “genetic counsellor”. Apparently, at least in Canada, such things exist. I have been recommended to have the HFE gene test to see if I have hereditary haemochromatosis (HH). This for completion. Back in 1994 I visited this high haemoglobin “space” and was bled regularly at St Thomas’. Retrospect suggests that I may have had an ongoing health condition which was missed back then.

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They took an armful each time. 

This HFE mutation would provide a benign explanation for my raised haem and ferritin levels. My ferritin levels have been increasing with time over the last four years. I don’t really have many of the symptoms associated with the genetic disease. It is linked with the less benign polycythaemia. Which would require a wider more substantive gene panel test, so-called molecular oncology. The authorisation for this testing is probably reserved for specialists. Iron overload is not without consequences. It can “cause” cancer or be correlated with it. Medical literature often blurs correlation with cause.

The problem with all this new-fangled gene testing is that it can open a can of worms

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Needless to say, the genetics are complex.

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I would be a mutant of sorts…

The next stages are Iron MRI and/or liver biopsy. The latter does not sound like much fun!!

Liver disease is possible maybe even likely, but I am largely asymptomatic. My enzyme work was ok.

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The next stage of inquiry would be to look for myeloproliferative neoplasms which are rare, not lottery winning rare, but rare enough. Search of JAK 2 and other related things starts increasing the price. JAK 2 can mutate.

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“Mutations in JAK2 have been implicated in polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and myelofibrosis as well as other myeloproliferative disorders. This mutation (V617F), a change of valine to phenylalanine at the 617 position, appears to render hematopoietic cells more sensitive to growth factors such as erythropoietin and thrombopoietin, because the receptors for these growth factors require JAK2 for signal transduction. JAK2 mutation, when demonstrable, is one of the methods of diagnosing polycythemia vera.”

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The thing is looking closely at most people my age the chances are that you will find something which has gone wrong.

The French sites suggest that some kind of follow up is warranted because of my Iron status.

Not sure what if anything the GP will recommend….

The osteoporosis situation seems simpler to treat with some pills, supplements and vitamins. But could have an Iron cause.

Given that the haemoglobin situation has been ongoing for, perhaps, thirty years it seems unlikely that any new unpleasant things have suddenly taken hold. But the ferritin level has doubled since 2021.

There is part of me that thinks that I just let this all drop…The osteoporosis might have enabled the fracture of my femoral neck six years ago. I have perhaps been living with it since. Simple answer is to not fall over.

A few more pills is no big deal however…

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hereditary haemochromatosis – regularly being bled.

Not HH – Iron MRI / Liver biopsy —

Liver disease – it depends on what – treatments in absence of virus are usually diet and no booze.

Something fancy and esoteric – myeloproliferative neoplasms – massive complex can of worms

The French sites suggest that some kind of follow up is warranted because of my Iron status.

What is inside the can…?

Reasons to be Cheerful – Iron Two and Three

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We heard on the news today that Netanyahu had a colonoscopy this morning. This means that he would have been on an industrial grade laxative protocol last night and this morning. He will have a sore sphincter and maybe, just maybe, he is now less full of shit. He has quite a few comorbidities. He is not renown for joviality, good will or a good sense of humour so the indignity of shitting his entire arse off may not have appealed to him. Laid out on a table with a metre long endoscope up your arse it is hard to be tough, macho and aggressive spouting bellicose propaganda.

Did you know that a single article in the Lancet can cost you forty quid!!

It turns out there is specialist research interest in excess bodily Iron in Rennes, particularly for rare Fe related genetic diseases. We just took the car to the garage and there was an advertising card “Jardin du Fer” so we are back roaming the streets and chanting “any old Iron” like pikeys in a white flatbed truck.

One of the guys from Rennes is a co-author:

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One of the problems and benefits of having been a researcher in a previous incarnation is the ability to scan-read to spot gaps in knowledge and then zoom in, on the off chance there may be a research proposal lurking. The primer paper suggests the following diagnosis flow chart. I am on the far right pathway. All genetic testing is expensive.

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On the basis of this I am possibly due an Iron MRI. Apparently, the presence of Fe changes the T2 nuclear relaxation time and by using various pulse echo sequences one can measure Fe content in the liver. One can also image Fe content relative to the spleen. The latter is more widely used.

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The Fe build up could be genetic, alcohol related or caused by primary or metastatic cancers. The gastroenterologist said they stopped following liver for metastatic disease five years after colon cancer. This being the most likely hang out for colon metastatic disease.

The corporeal symptom of hemochromatosis are given below.

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Hepatomegaly (Enlarged Liver) An enlarged liver is a symptom of underlying disease. It means that your liver is larger than normal. This may happen in response to an infection, advanced liver disease or cancer. Healthcare providers treat an enlarged liver by treating what’s causing it.

I have joint pain and have just added Osteoporosis to the fun list.

The default cause will be ethanolic, followed my smoking with my being a lard-arse a close third.

Maybe I am not special…maybe it really is that simple…

My research instincts say there may be something we are missing and have yet to find out about.

Reasons to be cheerful… Iron two and three.

Seb – Molecular Magnets – Dream – 27-03-2025

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Here is this morning’s dream.

The dream starts in a very large house, in which there has been a party. There has been little clearance overnight. I am there with Seb and his mother. There are other members of his extended family and the caterers are now in tidying up.

I am in then kitchen with them. It seems that Seb has again fallen unwell and is on the merry-go-round of medical appointments. I ask him what the situation is. He is now a young man. When I knew him last, he was a teenager recovering from severe illness and using crutches to help him walk. He is now walking and dressed in expensive clothing befitting of his familial status. I remember in the dream that his family are complex and very high functioning. I ask him what the problem is. He says that he keeps getting headaches and they do not know what the problem is.

I say that perhaps he needs these. I draw for him a molecule in which an atom of Iron and of Cobalt are joined together by a 1,4 – dicyanobenezene molecule, an electron bridge. The nitrogen atoms act as electron pair donors. Both transition metals are otherwise inside a molecular clathrate cage structure. The overall charge of the molecular magnet can be varied from positive to negative. These are a new type of molecule and can help him with his headaches. These molecules can be made to move, rotate, in an external applied field. These molecular magnets can be therapeutic.

He nods.

His mother says that she has a video tape which she wants us to see. The first part of the videotape is of her buying the video recorder. It is old school VHS. She ushers us into a room where the recorder is set up with a TV. It has on it videos of me arriving at their house and of our tutorial sessions ~ a decade ago.

I remind him of my offer to help in any way that I can. That I may have a clue for him which will help to explain many things.

The dream ends.