Another Piece of the Puzzle? (273/365)

I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor today to check my cumadin level and to see how I'm doing now that I'm home. My cumadin level is still a bit high, so he adjusted my dose and we'll recheck in two weeks. The genetic testing I had done while in the hospital finally came in, and the only one that came back positive was the MTHFR gene mutation (I'd link you to an article, but I can't find any one that explains it nicely, and I've given up looking for one. Basically it's a risk factor for blood clots). Thankfully it is heterozygous so it probably shouldn't cause me any major clotting issues, but my doc is sending me to a hematologist just to be safe. He thinks that it may just be part of the puzzle as to why I had this PE. From what I've read, doctors don't agree on if heterozygous MTHFR should be treated at all, my doc seems to think that I should be on baby aspirin for the rest of my life so we'll have to see if the hematologist agrees.

I don't know if the rest of you directly related to me need to be tested for this or not, but I will get the opinion of my hematologist when I go. I obviously inherited this from Mom or Dad (my guess is it's Mom, based on her miscarriage history) which means Dad could have it, and my brothers as well. And if both Mom and Dad are heterozygous, there's a chance that one of you boys is homozygous, which would most definitely be something you should know so you can take the proper precautions to avoid blood clots. Better to know before a clot than find out after like me.

So this could have played a role in the formation of my PE, I don't know that we'll ever know for sure, but we'll see what the hematologist says. I tell you, with me it is just one thing after another!