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Show CHRYSALIS pAGE 221 AHF fractions (more potent that ordinary plasma) and the missing enzyme is supplied by the donor blood. "A bleeding joint is agonizingly painful," he says. "Because of their intense pain, many hemophiliacs become drug addicts. I've had a couple of friends commit suicide. There are drugs available, but I don't take any of them." "Did you have second thoughts about having surgery?" I think of him bleeding, and bleeding. . .putting himself in such danger. "Only whether I ought to have done it now, or might have waited another ten years. Ten years ago the prostheses were really primitive, crude. Ten years from now they might be as much improved. But I wanted the Porsche now. And I couldn't bend my knees to drive. So I had it done now. They are quite servicable." Servicable. Why does he use a word like that? It suggests washing machine parts. Vacuum cleaners. Robots. He looks at me with large eyes that are purely happy and uncomplicated. He looks at his watch. "It's almost three," he says. "I have to pick up my children at school now." "You have a family." |