A topic came up for discussion this week on the HPS Adults listserv. What can I say, you never learn everything there is to know about HPS. The discussion concerned getting permanent eye liner applied. Eye make up in particular can sometimes be a little tricky to put on if your vision isn’t so great. Now, some places are offering the option to have eye liner put on for good.
But Marisol, one of the women on the listserv, advised that NIH had warned her against trying this. Curious, I followed up with Kevin O’Brien, the nurse practitioner at the NIH that works with HPS adults. Kevin confirmed the warning.
It seems that besides the other hazards of things such as permanent eye liner or tattoos, such as getting hepatitis etc., some of the inks used contain metals. This is problematic should you need medical imaging studies such as an MRI. Kevin advised that many MRI places won’t do MRIs on people with permanent cosmetics or tattoos.
I’m not an expert on either of these things. Frankly, I considered getting a tattoo in college for all of five seconds. This was before I knew about HPS. Remembering the disaster getting my ears pierced had been (they bled for a long time, didn’t heal right, and I ended up having to have a ear ring surgically removed) – I decided perhaps this just wasn’t the smartest thing I could do.
But, regardless, it’s yet another reason it’s not a bad idea to know for sure whether you have HPS. HPS’ers are far more likely to need studies like MRIs. And, hey, if you’re thinking about getting either one of these things done – consider yourself warned. At least ask lots of questions and check with your doctor! If you have HPS, you might want to think twice.
But Marisol, one of the women on the listserv, advised that NIH had warned her against trying this. Curious, I followed up with Kevin O’Brien, the nurse practitioner at the NIH that works with HPS adults. Kevin confirmed the warning.
It seems that besides the other hazards of things such as permanent eye liner or tattoos, such as getting hepatitis etc., some of the inks used contain metals. This is problematic should you need medical imaging studies such as an MRI. Kevin advised that many MRI places won’t do MRIs on people with permanent cosmetics or tattoos.
I’m not an expert on either of these things. Frankly, I considered getting a tattoo in college for all of five seconds. This was before I knew about HPS. Remembering the disaster getting my ears pierced had been (they bled for a long time, didn’t heal right, and I ended up having to have a ear ring surgically removed) – I decided perhaps this just wasn’t the smartest thing I could do.
But, regardless, it’s yet another reason it’s not a bad idea to know for sure whether you have HPS. HPS’ers are far more likely to need studies like MRIs. And, hey, if you’re thinking about getting either one of these things done – consider yourself warned. At least ask lots of questions and check with your doctor! If you have HPS, you might want to think twice.
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