My name is peabiscuit and I have a pretty unusual blood type. It took two really uncommon recessive genes to get this way. On the surface, it's B+, but there are hundreds of other proteins on your red blood cells. Fy(a-) means that I am lacking one commonly called Duffy. While it is far more common type in Africa, specifically West Africa (up to 90% of the pop.), it occurs in less than 1% of the caucasian population. Sssooooooo...
Apparently, I am resistant to Malaria and AIDS.
Transfusions and transplants can be difficult.
And... having babies gets pretty nuts for us.
Ken has two dominant genes to have the protein, so our children will never match my blood type. And here's where it gets ugly. While I'm pregnant, when I'm exposed to blood that has the protein, my body recognizes it as foreign and produces antibodies to destroy it. So, I destroy my baby's red blood cells, making them prenatally anemic. While it would be easier if I was Rh-, there are worse rare blood types to have for having babies.
Later today (Saturday May 21th - this is a backpost) I'll be putting a little more background information here about the specific problem that we have going on. Stay tuned...
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