Tales of Anemic Girl... The Relapse
hi everyone... just another update from yours truly.
as i may have told some of you, i spent another few days in the hospital last week. late tuesday night, i had some alarming heart palpitations as i was getting ready for bed, so i woke up Karen so we could go to the ER.
we got to Methodist Hospital in roughly twenty minutes and i was seen right away. since i had just been in the hospital, they were able to pull my chart and review my history. they wasted no time taking an EKG of my heart, a blood sample, and a chest X-ray. i guess with heart stuff, they don’t mess around.
after the ER doc and a Cardiologist saw me, they decided to admit me. by the time i got to my room, it was about 5 or 5:30 in the morning Wednesday. the nurse on duty asked me a ton of questions for my patient profile (which was never done during my last stay). also, she told me that my hemoglobin was a very low 7.4, and that i would be needing a blood transfusion... this was something that was mentioned the last time i was in the hospital, but never came to fruition. i called my parents and sister Aileen, and they said they would all come to donate blood for me.
a few hours later, i was wheeled up to the Cardiac unit, where i had an Echocardiogram done. (basically an ultrasound of the heart.) it was kind of weird to be there since most of the other patients were older or elderly men and women, and i just felt like an out-of-place kid.
after about 15 minutes of waiting, i was wheeled into a small room where my echo was to be done. coincidentally, i had the same tech from my last ER jaunt. he actually remembered me, which was kind of cool. it was kind of surreal to see my heart on the screen, beating.
after that, i got back to my room and saw that Karen had gone to work (she works in the Medical Center, just a few minutes away). i got to eat breakfast, and then i was hooked up to a portable heart monitor. around lunch time, Aileen came to see me and shortly thereafter, my parents came. they had taken the afternoon off because i was scheduled to see my Rheumatologist that day, and were going to accompany me at my appointment. all three of them tried to donate their blood to me, but for some reason or another were rejected. John, Karen’s boyfriend, had his blood typed, and he was the only one that donated. (even though we were a match, it would still take a couple of days for the blood to be tested. turns out we were even the same blood type.)
all day long, teams of doctors came to see me: Cardiology and Hematology and even Psychiatry.... basically, they determined that i needed more blood because my heart was working too hard without it. so, around dinner, i received two units (pints) of blood. each unit took about four hours to transfuse.
at one point, i fell asleep because they gave me Benadryl in case of an allergic reaction to the blood. when i woke up, there was a bit of a commotion in my room. (it was a big, semi-private room on the Transplant Unit of the hospital as there were no beds available on the main floor.) apparently, my new roommate was an elderly woman just transferred up from the ER. her adult children were panicking because she was unresponsive—she was having a stroke! the curtain between us was drawn, so i couldn’t see anything, but i could hear her children trying to communicate with her and find out what she needed. before long, they transferred her to the ICU and it was eerily quiet. i felt so bad for their family.
at around 10 pm, one of my blood doctors came to see me and explained what was happening to me. during my last stay in the hospital, the test for the type of anemia they thought i had came back normal, so they were testing my blood again for a different one. he said that since i had the anemia, coupled with the rheumatological complications, it was hard to say if i would be needing more transfusions in the future, or a type of hormone they give to cancer patients to stimulate red blood cell production in my bone marrow. (which had been supressed by whatever acute illness i suffered from previously.) he did put me on folic acid, however, which is something they give to certain iron-resistant anemia sufferers.
anyway... the next morning, i got some good news: my hemoglobin went from 7.4 to 10.2! that was a huge difference (i think normal is around 11), and i felt more alive. i could feel my heart was working/suffering a lot less, too, which was the most important thing.
i spent one more night in the hospital for monitoring, and the next afternoon i was discharged.
since then, i have been able to withstand longer shopping excursions (we went to Katy Mills Mall on Saturday for a few hours) and i can climb stairs without feeling like my heart is going to quit. i still get tired, but it seems like i have more stamina. i still have a small but insignificant pericardial effusion, and i’m taking more medications than i ever have in my entire life, but they’re keeping my whacked-out body in check.
for now, that’s all i can really ask for.
as i may have told some of you, i spent another few days in the hospital last week. late tuesday night, i had some alarming heart palpitations as i was getting ready for bed, so i woke up Karen so we could go to the ER.
we got to Methodist Hospital in roughly twenty minutes and i was seen right away. since i had just been in the hospital, they were able to pull my chart and review my history. they wasted no time taking an EKG of my heart, a blood sample, and a chest X-ray. i guess with heart stuff, they don’t mess around.
after the ER doc and a Cardiologist saw me, they decided to admit me. by the time i got to my room, it was about 5 or 5:30 in the morning Wednesday. the nurse on duty asked me a ton of questions for my patient profile (which was never done during my last stay). also, she told me that my hemoglobin was a very low 7.4, and that i would be needing a blood transfusion... this was something that was mentioned the last time i was in the hospital, but never came to fruition. i called my parents and sister Aileen, and they said they would all come to donate blood for me.
a few hours later, i was wheeled up to the Cardiac unit, where i had an Echocardiogram done. (basically an ultrasound of the heart.) it was kind of weird to be there since most of the other patients were older or elderly men and women, and i just felt like an out-of-place kid.
after about 15 minutes of waiting, i was wheeled into a small room where my echo was to be done. coincidentally, i had the same tech from my last ER jaunt. he actually remembered me, which was kind of cool. it was kind of surreal to see my heart on the screen, beating.
after that, i got back to my room and saw that Karen had gone to work (she works in the Medical Center, just a few minutes away). i got to eat breakfast, and then i was hooked up to a portable heart monitor. around lunch time, Aileen came to see me and shortly thereafter, my parents came. they had taken the afternoon off because i was scheduled to see my Rheumatologist that day, and were going to accompany me at my appointment. all three of them tried to donate their blood to me, but for some reason or another were rejected. John, Karen’s boyfriend, had his blood typed, and he was the only one that donated. (even though we were a match, it would still take a couple of days for the blood to be tested. turns out we were even the same blood type.)
all day long, teams of doctors came to see me: Cardiology and Hematology and even Psychiatry.... basically, they determined that i needed more blood because my heart was working too hard without it. so, around dinner, i received two units (pints) of blood. each unit took about four hours to transfuse.
at one point, i fell asleep because they gave me Benadryl in case of an allergic reaction to the blood. when i woke up, there was a bit of a commotion in my room. (it was a big, semi-private room on the Transplant Unit of the hospital as there were no beds available on the main floor.) apparently, my new roommate was an elderly woman just transferred up from the ER. her adult children were panicking because she was unresponsive—she was having a stroke! the curtain between us was drawn, so i couldn’t see anything, but i could hear her children trying to communicate with her and find out what she needed. before long, they transferred her to the ICU and it was eerily quiet. i felt so bad for their family.
at around 10 pm, one of my blood doctors came to see me and explained what was happening to me. during my last stay in the hospital, the test for the type of anemia they thought i had came back normal, so they were testing my blood again for a different one. he said that since i had the anemia, coupled with the rheumatological complications, it was hard to say if i would be needing more transfusions in the future, or a type of hormone they give to cancer patients to stimulate red blood cell production in my bone marrow. (which had been supressed by whatever acute illness i suffered from previously.) he did put me on folic acid, however, which is something they give to certain iron-resistant anemia sufferers.
anyway... the next morning, i got some good news: my hemoglobin went from 7.4 to 10.2! that was a huge difference (i think normal is around 11), and i felt more alive. i could feel my heart was working/suffering a lot less, too, which was the most important thing.
i spent one more night in the hospital for monitoring, and the next afternoon i was discharged.
since then, i have been able to withstand longer shopping excursions (we went to Katy Mills Mall on Saturday for a few hours) and i can climb stairs without feeling like my heart is going to quit. i still get tired, but it seems like i have more stamina. i still have a small but insignificant pericardial effusion, and i’m taking more medications than i ever have in my entire life, but they’re keeping my whacked-out body in check.
for now, that’s all i can really ask for.
posted by sightofstars | 8:47 AM
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