Bleeding Disorders

 

Bleeding Disorders, also known as Hemophilia, von Willebrand Disease, Coagulation Disorders, Blood Clotting Disorders, Clotting Factor Deficiencies

​Bleeding disorders are rare disorders affecting the way the body controls blood clotting. If your blood does not clot normally, you may experience problems with bleeding too much after an injury or surgery. This health topic will focus on bleeding disorders that are caused by problems with clotting factors, including hemophilia and von Willebrand disease.

Clotting factors, also called coagulation factors, are proteins in the blood that work with small cells, called platelets, to form blood clots. Any problem that affects the function or number of clotting factors or platelets can lead to a bleeding disorder.

A bleeding disorder can be inherited, meaning that you are born with the disorder, or it can be acquired, meaning it develops during your life. Signs and symptoms can include easy bruising, heavy menstrual periods, and nosebleeds that happen often. Your doctor will review your symptoms, risk factors, medical history, and blood test results to diagnose a bleeding disorder.

Your doctor may recommend medicines or clotting factor replacement therapy to treat the bleeding disorder. Some bleeding disorders are lifelong conditions, and some can lead to complications. Even if you do not need medicine to treat the bleeding disorder, your doctor may recommend taking precautions before a medical procedure or during a pregnancy to prevent bleeding problems in the future.
(credits to NIH)

 

TRANSCRIPT

Lita T  00:07  Hello and welcome to another episode of PodcastDX. The show that brings you interviews with people just like you whose lives were forever changed by a medical diagnosis. I'm Lita.

Ron  00:18  I'm Ron

Jean  00:19  and I'm moving to Hawaii.

Lita T  00:21 No, she's not

Jean  00:22   it snowed again last night.

Lita T  00:23  I know but

Ron  00:24  and today

Jean  00:25  and today

Lita T  00:26  still not moving to Hawaii.

Jean  00:27  ohhh moving to Hawaii

Lita T  00:28  Remember when you said you cannot shovel lava?

Jean  00:30  Lava 

Lita T  00:31  Okay,

Jean  00:31  this is true.

Lita T  00:32  We're staying here.

Jean  00:33  Okay.

Lita T  00:33  Collectively we're the host of podcast dx. March is bleeding disorders Awareness Month, although bleeding disorders may be acquired. On today's show, we're going to be talking about the most common inherited bleeding disorder, von Willebrand disease,

Jean  00:53  someone with (unitelligable) the blah...blah

Lita T  00:55  What?

Jean  00:56   Someone living with a bleeding disorder has blood, which does not clot properly.

Ron  01:02  When someone is injured and bleeding, a blood clot forms to hopefully...to hopefully stop that person from losing too much blood. This process requires both blood platelets and clotting factors which clump together to form something like a dam to stop the bleeding.

Lita T  01:20  Right?  I remember watching Grey's Anatomy.

Ron  01:22  (Chuckle)

Lita T  01:23  Okay, we need more platelets, right?

Jean  01:26  I don't watch Grey's Anatomy...but sure I could see them saying that.

Lita T  01:28  Yeah, cuz you know, somebody is bleeding. They need more platelets!

Jean  01:31  Right

Ron  01:31  That's not scripted.

Lita T  01:33  No, it's not.

Jean  01:33  No.

Lita T  01:35  Someone with a bleeding disorder may notice that they bruise easily bleed; excessively during medical or dental procedures or when cut; have unexplained nosebleeds and bleeding gums and internal bleeding. And when I was on blood thinners...no

Jean  01:54  Here we go...

Lita T  01:54  Right? Wait was I am blood thinners or aspirin? I was either on blood thinners or a baby aspirin at one time. And I was outside gardening. And I grabbed a thorn bush.  Right? I was clipping and the thorn punctured something on my wrist. And I'm watching it and it's going: squirt, squirt, squirt, and I'm just watching it. I like Isn't that interesting? As it squirting like a squirt gun every you know it would like with my pulse. Squirt, squirt, squirt. And then finally I said: "Okay, better stop this." So, I put pressure on it to stop it. But um, yeah.

Jean  02:24  We're all surprised she's still here. (Chuckle)

Lita T  02:36  (Boisturious laughter)

Ron  02:36  But you definitely painted a picture.

Lita T  02:38  Yeah. Right. So that's what it would be like, if you have a bleeding disorder.

Jean  02:41  I don't know if that's exactly what it would be like, that sounds like an arterial spray that squirting in very, very dangerous.

Lita T  02:47  Okay, that's a bleeding disorder.

Jean  02:49  Bleeding problem.

Ron  02:50  So

Lita T  02:51  yeah.

Ron  02:52  In addition to obtaining a complete medical history, your healthcare provider may order a complete blood count, a bleeding time test and or a platelet aggregation test to help diagnose your condition.

Jean  03:07  And have you guys ever had a bleeding time test?

Ron  03:10  Me personally? No.

Jean  03:11  Oh, they like cut your, nick, your ear and then stand there and wait to see when it stops bleeding.

Lita T  03:18  (chuckling)

Jean  03:19  That's what I remember.

Lita T  03:19  like watching. paint dry?

Ron  03:20  I don't like your doctor's.

Jean  03:21  Yeah, well, that wasn't my doctor. That was my mom. Oh, no, just kidding. Okay. Um, treatment for bleeding disorders will likely depend on the severity and cause of the specific bleeding disorder an individual has.

Lita T  03:33  Right. And although I had never heard of it before, today, the most commonly inherited bleeding disorder is von Willebrand disease.

Ron  03:45  Well I can say that approximately 1% of the population here in the US are affected by von Villa brain disease. And it's characterized by an insufficient amount of a protein. Ironically, the von Willebrand factor or VFW

Jean  04:03  VWF

Lita T  04:04  The VFW hopefully doesn't. It's causing you to bleed you're going to the wrong  VWF

Ron  04:11  Did I say I do glasses. I'm sorry, the von Willebrand factor or v w F, which aids in the clotting,

Lita T  04:18  right? There are three forms of von Willebrand disease.

Jean  04:24  We're gonna say it differently every time you say

Lita T  04:26  Yes, okay. Individuals with type one have less VWF than average and may have associated bleeding issues.

Jean  04:37  Were and those living with type two von Willebrand disease have enough v wF in their system, but their Vidya wF does not function correctly or is incorrectly formed. And

Ron  04:49  type three, v w.f

Jean  04:52  Vwd  willen brand disease Oh, tight as opposed to von Willebrand factor. Oh, Okay,

Lita T  05:00  okay. So type three v WD.

Ron  05:03  Okay? So type three v WD is very serious individuals with this form of von Willebrand disease, do not make v w f at all. Oh, yeah, right. And their platelets cannot clot and this is very This is a very serious condition which makes bleeding difficult to control.

Lita T  05:23  That sounds terrible. Individuals with von Willebrand disease should typically avoid taking medications which may increase their risk of bleeding such as aspirin, or non steroidal anti inflammatories.

Jean  05:37  And if you have a bleeding disorder, it is vital that you inform your health care providers, including your doctors and dentists. And I would suggest if you know if it's a very serious form, that you have an ID bracelet that states that

Lita T  05:50  Oh, yeah, for sure. And carry a lot of gauze.

Jean  05:54  I don't get a tourniquet. I don't think you should be able to carry a tourniquet, no band aids. I think people that carry Okay, tourniquets are very serious,

Lita T  06:02  right. Okay. If you would like to know more about bleeding disorder awareness, check out the link to the national hemophilia foundation Foundation's website which will be on our web page, or you may want to donate to a red tie fundraiser.

Jean  06:21  And I think Haemophilia is what we've all associated with writing disorders. That's what I've heard, right? But it's very, very rare. It just gets a lot of publicity, because you hear about, you know, like Royals hat being haemophiliac and or being haemophiliacs because,

Lita T  06:34  you know, that's, that's where it came from.

Jean  06:37  No, it's just inbreeding, and the those, you know, because then you're passing the factor on and you're increasing the chance, or likelihood that two people with the same factor will pass it on. But

Ron  06:47  that's the most common, right. No,

Jean  06:49  no, no, it's not. It's very rare. von Willebrand disease is the most common. Isn't that weird? And we've never heard of that. Yeah, right. That's Yeah, it's very counterintuitive. It is very counterintuitive. But that's what the internet says, and we believe everything on the internet.

Lita T  07:07  And gene would like you to know about a blood parfait recipe in case you wanted to share this with your friends.

Jean  07:17  Well, the National hemophilia foundation does try to utilize different techniques to help people understand more about their blood and clotting. And to help illustrate that, they suggest that you could try to make a blood purvey, you could use a cream colored substance like vanilla ice cream, or maybe a yogurt as your base use Cheerios. And that will represent your platelets, although they're nice and round, which I don't understand. And you kind of want something like awkwardly shaped but red m&ms or red Hots, and those could be the red blood cells, white chocolate chips, or mini marshmallows. And these can be the white blood cells, pretzels. And these can be the fibrin which is the kind of the stuff that joins with platelets to form that your clot, okay. Gummy worms in the eye can actually represent the V WD. And to top it off, put on some rainbow sprinkles, and that'll represent the 13 other blood factors.

Lita T  08:14  Yeah, we'll be doing that.

Ron  08:18  I gotta tell you, I learned quite a bit on this. This morning. 

Lita  08:21  Oh well, that's

Jean  08:22  that's good.

Lita T  08:23  Yeah, I'm glad somebody did. Yeah, I

Jean  08:24  learned we're not moving to Hawaii.

Lita T  08:26  No, we're not moving to Hawaii.

Ron  08:28  Well, for our listeners, if you have any questions or comments related to today's show, you can drop us a line at podcast [email protected] through our website, podcast, dx comm on Facebook pitter pitter pitter patter pitter patter on

Jean  08:47  his own app. Wow. Have you heard from somebody on Twitter? I hear they have a lot of patter.

Ron  08:54  Let's try this again. Okay, through our website, podcast, dx.com on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram,

Jean  09:02  I can appear as a combination of Twitter and Pinterest. I like it.

Lita T  09:05  Yeah. Okay. And if you have a moment to spare, please give us a review wherever you get your podcast. As always, please keep in mind that this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regime. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay of seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast till next week.