Symptoms

A short while after phil turned 32, he had his annual check up, where he got his required blood test.  When the results returned, an unusually large amount of iron was found in his blood.  After further testing, it was revealed that Phil had too high of a transferrin saturation (over 45%), which is a huge sign of HH.  Transferrin is the protein that carries iron in blood and too much of it is found in all HH patients.  After this blood test, another confirmation blood test was taken to determine if Phil's HFE gene was indeed mutated.  When these results came back positive, we knew that he had HH.  It was also determined that both of our parents were carriers of the mutated gene but were not affected.  

The time after that was tough.  We had to notify family, friends and anyone close to Phil. We did not know if Phil was going to be okay, but after learning more about HH, we knew he would be fine if he was treated properly. We were overjoyed, and all took precautionary blood tests to see if anyone else had the disease.  Luckily, no one did, and now, two years after Phil's diagnoses, we are all living normal and great lives.