So I haven’t been
feeling well this week. I have been
really, really, really tired and have no energy.
Let me give you an example of a small part of my day.
Laying
on the couch. I have a headache. I move from laying down to sitting. SMACK!
(SMACK = hit in the back of
the head with a metal baseball bat. Have you ever been hit in the back of the
head with a metal baseball bat? Yeah, me
neither but I imagine it really hurts and this is how my head feels when I
change positions.) I sit for about a minute or so to regain
vision and feel slightly relieved of the initial pain in my head. I stand up.
SMACK! I have to steady myself so I don’t fall. After another minute I slowly walk from the
couch to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
My heart is frantically beating, I can barely catch my breath and have
to sit down at the kitchen table to rest. SMACK! Oh man, I still have to get back to the
couch.
That is my day
Monday – Friday. It gets progressively
worse each day so by Wednesday, I am very concerned. Thursday I go in for my routine blood work
and the nurses can see how difficult it is for me to move. They wonder if maybe my hemoglobin count is
down. I don’t really know what that
means, but I want there to be some reason for why I feel this way. Turns out my hemoglobin levels are low, very
low. Fun Fact: hemoglobin is the
protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen. A normal range for women is 12.0-15.5 grams
per deciliter. I am at 7.9. No wonder my heart has been racing, I’m short
of breath, and fatigued! Now I know why
I have been looking extremely pale and sick.
I don’t have enough blood in my body.
Turns out blood is pretty essential.
So they immediately schedule me for a blood transfusion. I didn’t even realize that was an
option. I thought you had to bleed to
lose blood. Turns out this is another
side effect of chemo. The nurses and
doctor tell me that I will feel so much better after the transfusion. Let’s hope so!
Looking
on the Bright Side…I have a whole new appreciation for blood. It’s like I discovered something new. Something legal, free, and fabulous!
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