Protein S(inister)

Once upon a time, I had a blood clot. Then, it went away. The End.

Only not entirely...see, there are these proteins in your blood, and one of them - Protein S - can be a big time contributor to blood clots if its present in high levels. There are some other things it can indicate too, but they are really scary, so we'll just stick to the blood clot theory for now.

Anyway, I've always had a "high" level of Protein S in my blood, but my hematologist said some people are just like that, and I shouldn't worry about it. He still wanted to run a blood panel every 6 months, which is pretty counter intuitive to it being nothing to worry about, but after the second year of everything being A-OK, I quit worrying too.

Murphy's Law says that is exactly when some bullshit will go down...

My last blood panel came back with "concerning high" levels of Protein S. The hematologist called, insisted I start taking blood thinners ASAP, and come for a finger prick and ultrasound referral. So that's what I did this morning.

To be clear - no one has any idea if there is even a clot. I've said before, that this particular medical concentration is a bunch of bullshit and snake oil, but I suppose there is some logic, kind of. Here's the breakdown:

1. If there is a clot, the blood thinners will help my body work it out.
2. If there isn't a clot, the blood thinners will help bring the protein level back down to (my) regular level; and thus, avoid clottage.
3. Rainbows and sunshine.

Clot or no clot, I suppose that can't be helped, and I'll try my darnedest not to worry incessantly over it. Really, it's the blood thinners that worry me the most. I'm medically resistant to them (because of that damn protein being naturally so high), so I have to take a really high dose of Counmadin.

Regular people dosage = 2 - 4 mg
My dosage = 10 - 14 mg

Lots of Coumadin means thin, watery, bleed-to-death quickly blood. No extreme sports, no shaving (seriously, this is the best post ever!), no leafy green veggies...