Confused. Com

[NattyB7]

Hi guys

Not quite sure what to say ,I'm new to this. So I'll try not to waffle. My dad has sickle cell and 2 days ago my GP finally diagnosed me as having Thalassemia. She wants me to continue taking my iron, vitamin D, blood pressure tablets and tablets for my migraine. I'm trying my best to educate myself based on this , my symptoms seem to fall under thalassemia but I've also had a few crisis in the past and explained this to my doctor prior to the diagnosis. I just want to know what to do and how others cope , all of my life I've been treated for anemia and popped paracetamol for pain relief.

[bluebug]

Did your GP send you for tests to confirm you didn't have sickle cell?

There are people who inherited the recessive genes from both parents who have a thalassemia sickle cell variant.

If not you need to demand to be tested to rule this out. The reason for this is both sickle cell and thalessemia are recessive so require both parents to have the disease, and as your dad has sickle cell you need to rule this out.

(There are people with sickle cell who inherit one gene from one parent who get ill but standard medical thinking ignores these people. )

Also this is the Sickle Cell Society site so you are unlikely to find thalessemia suffers here who can give you advice.