Information about hemophilia |
| DORCAS ANNETTE WALKER is a second generation woman with the genetic disease of hemophilia. Her father had severe hemophilia and died of AIDS due to contaminated clotting factor. Dorcas is the only daughter (of two) to be a hemophilia carrier. Her daughter, Dawn, also has mild hemophilia as well as being a hemophilia carrier. This is very rare as hemophilia usually passes from the male with hemophilia, down through his daughter as a hemophilia carrier, and then to her son. Dorcas' son, Dwight, has severe hemophilia inherited from his grandfather. |  |
Hemophilia is a rare genetic bleeding disorder in which the blood does not clot normally. Persons with hemophilia are missing or have a low level of a protein needed for normal blood clotting. About 18,000 people in the United States have hemophilia. Hemophilia usually occurs only in males (with rare exceptions). A person with severe hemophilia means that they have less than one percent clotting factor in their system.
 |
 |
Dwight fell
in love with an old truck Randy's brother had when he was first driving.
For years this 1966 Chevrolet truck sat in the back yard.
Every couple of years, Dwight would ask if Larry was interested in selling
the old truck as now he lived out of state, was married, and had kids
of his own. During a time when Dwight was down visiting Randy and Dawn
they called Larry again, who agreed to sell Dwight his old truck. All
excited, Dwight called to inform me of his great
news. At last the day came when all the arrangements were made and the
old orange truck finally arrived at our place. I grabbed my camera to
snap some pictures of this historic (?) moment.
I have to confess that I was overly elated at the thought of a rusted orange truck sitting around. Dwight assured me that he would keep it in the back yard while he fixed it up. Guess what? After the truck was unloaded it was discovered that the tires were flat and needed to be changed. The dear truck ended up sitting in my front side yard for a couple of months as a side yard decoration.
 |
 |
Since then the truck has been painted black, is tagged and licensed, and now sits in the driveway. There still is an awful lot of work that needs to be done on it, but Dwight enjoys driving it around and discussing all of its features, or should I say lack of features, with the other fellows. Dwight ended up with a bruised back and two hand bleeds that slowed him down for over a week due to lying on the ground hammering for a couple of hours while trying to get a couple of the old rusted-on tires off. To Dwight though, his old clunker is worth all the sweat and toil involved.
 |
Dorcas is
currently working on a book about raising two children of opposite genders
with hemophilia. Not only did Dawn and Dwight keep her on her toes by
having some bleeding episodes at the same time, but she also coped with
the frustrations of having a daughter who was a mild bleeder (besides
being a hemophilia carrier) that caused internal bleeds like her son.
Now
designed by |
Originally
designed by |