Labels

Sunday, June 22, 2014

NOW IT’S ONLYTHE B27






No matter that I've been complaining for almost (only) 10 years of a terrible pain at my back in the exact same location on a 24/7 basis, no matter the position of my body (sitting, standing and laying in bed) none of my MD has been able to at least guess that it might be AS, but now my latest expert MD has suggested for me to have a simple blood test done to see if I have the B27 (B27 is a blood test to look for a protein that is found on the surface of white blood cells. The protein is called human leukocyte antigen B27 (HLA-B27). Human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) are proteins that help the body's immune system tell the difference between its own cells and foreign, harmful substances) as you can see from the websites I link here and the usual Youtube video that it shouldn’t be very complicated for any MD to know when a patient is affected by this condition, I must however say that I have been under the care of 5 different MD over 8 years of time who all have been incapable to say that my never-ending pain might be from the Ankylosing Spondylitis, only this last one recommended for me to have a specific blood test done to say if I've really been suffering for such a long time from this condition.
Trying to look at things under a “pink light” (as my best caregiver always tells me to do) I can only say that I’m lucky to live in a time when this condition can be proven beyond reasonable doubts with a blood test, nobody wants to risk making an educated guess just based on specific symptoms that haven’t changed in “just 8 years”.


So now I’m glad to take the risk to be proven wrong by chemistry, because IF I’m right…..I’m afraid I can’t tell…..
  1. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003551.htm
  2. http://www.spondylitis.org/about/as_diag.aspx
  3. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/1201027-overview
  4. http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/41/8/857.full


No comments: