Eating Crow – Hepatitis C Test needed more often than I thought!

I love my friends!  Especially my internet friends, who are often chosen because I have identified something in them that makes me want to be like them.

In the past, I have mentioned Rita Alexandrea as one of those friends I want to be like someday.  She writes, she cruises.  And – best of all – she cruises WHILE she writes.  Oh, how envious I am!  Today, Rita has proven her worth as a friend.

Yesterday, I posted a response rant concerning the CDC’s suggestion that all baby boomers get tested for Hepatitis C virus. While I agreed that those with risk factors should be tested, which is what the CDC has always espoused, the CDC’s initiative is for all boomers to have the Hepatitis C test, regardless of risk factor.  To that, I objected, as one member of the generation with zero drug use and no transfusion history, which were the reasons identified as the major reasons for boomers to be tested.  I honestly didn’t see the point, and secretly wondered if maybe there was a hidden agenda in there somewhere (as she whispers biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggggg phaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarmaaaaaaaa and looks around cautiously).

Rita responded quickly to this post, pointing out that – well, I’ll let her tell you:

You could have knocked me over with a feather.  RH factor shots (aka RhoGam) were  commonly given to women within 72 hours of childbirth, if they had RH-Negative factor blood and if their child was RH positive (I don’t know what the accepted preventative is these days).  Who’d a thunk it?  As one of the approximately 15% of the population with RH negative blood, and having had two RH-positive children, I had two of these injections, and then, pretty much forgot about them.  I am pretty sure I didn’t even realize they involved blood products.  Although I am normally an active and involved participant in my own health care, I was just too busy taking care of my kids to even think about what “magic” made these shots possible and desirable.

Thanks to these injections, my second child had a wonderful chance at life that he would not otherwise have had (the first child of an RH-Negative mother is not at risk with this condition), and he has enriched my life, as well as the lives of his wife and children, immeasurably!  I cannot imagine life without him, so whatever risk factor I encountered as a result of these injections was well worth it.

Guess I’ll be getting tested.

Rita, thanks for speaking up!  I think I needed that!

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