Treatments from a Blood Disorder Specialist

A blood disorder specialist, or hematologist, provides treatment for a wide variety of blood cancers and blood disorders. Specialists work with individuals, assessing their needs and history, to create a customized treatment plan.

Blood disorders take on many different forms requiring specialized knowledge and a team of medical providers to accommodate each individual’s specific needs.

Symptoms of a blood disorder

A blood disorder specialist evaluates symptoms to determine the severity and type of blood disorder.

Symptoms are often caused by a decrease in red blood cells and hemoglobin, white blood cells or immune system proteins, decreased platelets or blood clotting factors. Each of these manifest different in symptoms such as anemia, fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath, fever, infections, abnormal bleeding and bruising.

Less often, symptoms can be due to an increase in red blood cells, white blood cells or immune system proteins or platelets. The symptoms from these increases can manifest as headaches, a red complexion, thickening of the blood and excessive blood clotting.

It is important to seek out the advice of a blood disorder specialist as these symptoms can also be diagnosed wrongly or rightly as other types of disorder.

In addition to the aforementioned signs, the following is a list of all the symptoms that could signal a blood disorder:

• Bleeding gums
• Heavy menstrual bleeding
• Unexplained nosebleeds
• Red complexion
• Blood thickening
• Blood clotting
• Blood blisters in the mouth
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Pale skin
• Pica (the eating of non-nutritious items such as hair, dirt or clay)

What does treatment look like?

Depending on the disorder, treatment will look different from one person to the next. A comprehensive plan of care may include one or more of the following:

• Growth factors to stimulate blood cell production
• Steroids or other drugs to help suppress the immune system
• Chemotherapy to destroy abnormal cells
• Blood-component therapies, such as clotting factors or platelet transfusions
• Blood marrow transplant
• Clinical studies
• Blood transfusions

Treatment is specialized to the individual's needs and specific type of blood disorder (anemia, bleeding disorders and blood clots) or blood cancer (leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma) being treated. It is important to have a medical doctor who specializes in blood disorders as a part of your medical treatment team.

There are a number of different bleeding disorders. The two most common and well known are hemophilia and von Willebrand disease. Both are inherited conditions and, when diagnosed early, completely treatable. To learn more about these blood diseases and other blood disorders, you can visit the American Society of Hematology website.

Don’t put off seeing a specialist

Blood is life. When something is wrong with the blood pumping through your veins, your total health is affected. If you are experiencing the above symptoms and have been putting off seeing a medical professional don’t wait any longer. Your health is important. Your blood is vital to your health and energy. The conditions are treatable, they simply have to be discovered and diagnosed.

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