My brother spent a stint in the hospital recently, for a stent. He came out without a stent but a tube connecting his liver to a bile drain tube outside of his body.
My job was to read his diagnostic tests off the hospital web site and report back to him the state of his bilirubin and other liver numbers.
One of the tests they ordered was for aPTT, the time it takes for his blood to clot. (45 seconds, if you are wondering, which is a bit long, she typed, entirely violating her brother’s HIPPA rights.)
I followed a Google trail of family buzzwords, from “inherited” to “auto immune” to “lupus” to “lupoid sclerosis.” And then, to “rare” and “controversial” and “debate.”
Interesting, though, that there’s a supposed Lupoid variant of MS in which (if I understand correctly) your slippery non-clotting blood approaches the blood-brain-barrier, sneaks in, and then does a lupus-like attack on your central nervous system. And then, for just an extra touch of soap-opera drama, it gives you a false positive on your syphilis test.
Can I find any of this today? No, I cannot, at least not in the straightforward form I saw it last week. Still, nice to know that they are out there continuing to research MS, finding new hybrid forms and the like.
My brother is home now. His dog dealt with his absence by chewing up shower curtains. I am worried the dog will feel the the bile drain will have the same mouth-feel as the shower curtain.
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