The Ins and Outs of Antiphospholipid Syndrome With Guest Dr. Jill Schofield
Episode 39: The Ins and Outs of Antiphospholipid Syndrome With Guest Dr. Jill Schofield
In this episode, guest Dr. Schofield discusses Antiphospholipid Syndrome. APS is a complex multisystem autoimmune disease. It is often comorbid with Lupus. It can be primary or secondary. Females are more likely to have APS than males. It tends to occur more in younger females. Women are more likely to have memory loss and migraines than males. This is a lifelong disorder, although as one ages, the antibodies might go away.
Symptoms can include migraines, memory loss, stroke, POTS symptoms, seizures, blood clots in arteries or veins, and severe pregnancy complications. It is helpful to go to a doctor to investigate for APS if they have livido reticularis, refractory migraine, pregnancy issues, Raynaud’s, memory loss in a young person, thickening of the heart valves, family history of autoimmune disease, personal history of autoimmune disease, nonspecific white matter changes in the brain ,low platelet count, recurrent stress fractures, and/or avascular necrosis. Beware because APS is an MS mimic. Usually, APS is kicked off by some sort of trigger. POTS and migraines often start around the same time.
Plavix, aspirin, or blood thinners can help significantly with migraines. Potential pregnancy complications include miscarriage (often late), stillbirth, recurrent early miscarriage, preeclampsia, eclampsia, and/or intrauterine growth restriction. To minimize those effects during pregnancy, doctors often prescribe aspirin, Vitamin D, heparin, and plaquenil, and do close monitoring of the pregnancy and fetus. Other common nonpregnancy-related complications include stroke, blood clots, stress fractures, and heart attacks.
Dr. Schofield discusses the many problems with the current diagnostic system of APS. A person is diagnosed by having clinical symptoms of APS and positive antibodies for APS. If you have APS symptoms and you start having new symptoms of a clot or neurological symptoms, get checked out ASAP to ensure that you are not having a clot or a stroke. She also recommends thromboprophylaxis after a surgery or after giving birth.
Links:
Center For Multisystems Disease
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The Spoonie Struggle
The Spoonie Struggle is about the raw, honest look at living life with chronic illnesses and chronic pain conditions. Spoonies of all types are welcome to join us, but we will have a heavier focus on the lesser common, lesser understood, and difficult to diagnose conditions, such as Ehlers Danlos, Marfan’s, Ankylosing spondylitis, Sjogren’s syndrome, lupus, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, and endometriosis. In this show, we will discuss our own experiences of each aspect of life with our chronic health conditions, speak with other spoonies about their experiences, discuss coping, advocating, and self-care related to chronic illness, provide helpful and well-vetted resources, and interview professionals who are experts in the field to gain further insight into our conditions and learn about ways to educate family, friends, and doctors, advocate for ourselves, cope with our conditions, and hopefully, thrive! This is a great way to join a like-minded community and to meet people who are in the same boat as you. And, to realize that you are not alone. This is a nonjudgmental space to help each other through our chronic illness journey, to be an actual self again, and to make thriving in life an actual possibility.
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