The Virtues of Being Sick

Occasionally I mention the fact that I have inherited iron overload, or hemochromatosis. After being misdiagnosed and undiagnosed for several years I was eventually correctly diagnosed in 2000, at a point when my episodes of being sick had become extremely severe. (If left untreated, hemochromatosis is 100% fatal.) Since then I've kept things more or less under control by having phlebotomies every month — about a pint of blood taken out, with nothing put back in — which keeps my iron levels tolerable. Nevertheless, every so often I'll have an episode, like I had this morning. A moderately severe one. But I try to look on the bright side: being susceptible to being knocked out, at almost any time for no apparent reason, makes me much more appreciative of what I've got. And perhaps a tad less patient with greedy people who want to wreck the planet. I figure, if I'm difficult, I've earned it!