Yet Another Weird One ...

What is it with me and weird blood test results that don't seem to have much signifiance?

The jury's still out on this one, so we'll see what my rheumatologist does with it.

But the hematologist called me this evening with the good news that I'm not going to bleed to death. (I kind of knew that already.)

I am among 1 to 3 percent of the population that has a weird antibody that causes an abnormal test result on the typical test used to check clotting.

Dr. D called it a "lupus inhibitor," which is a bit of a misnomer because apparently "lots" of people without lupus have it. (Lots, of course, being fewer than 3 percent of the population. The Lupus Foundation says about half the people with it do not have lupus.)

Ironically, people with this antibody that makes it look like they don't clot properly are more at risk of thrombosis (blood clots that can lead to a stroke or embolism, etc.).

Turns out this might also explain my miscarriages a few years ago, if the heart-shaped uterus wasn't enough to cause them.

Anyway, you can read more about this at Wikipedia here or at the Lupus Foundation page here.

So I don't think that this will help my rheumatologist assign me a lupus diagnosis. I don't know if I want one ...

But I'll be calling his office tomorrow to alert him to this latest development. I'm also hoping to get copies from the hematologist's office of all the lab results of the tests he ran, which I'll post here to share.