Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Platelets again 9/21/11


Platelets again 9/21/11


I feel much better today than yesterday. I went to see the doc about my legs. He is of the mind that my loss of motor control is due to the rapidity with which I am taken off steroids (e.g. Decadron). He says I am recovering too fast from the episode for it to be some of the other drugs.

I’m skeptical and will continue researching stuff on my own. Regardless, the plan we came up with is for me to stay in the hospital an extra couple of days for observation when I take that final block of chemo and I am also going to get an MRI soon to make sure I have a brain and am neurologically sound.

I had s really cool experience yesterday – I’ll get to platelets in a minute; hold your horses. Anyway, I have this Ommaya Reservoir in my head so the doc can give me chemo and check spinal fluid. There was this lady at the chemo suite yesterday that was very nervous about getting her first treatment through her Ommaya. The nurses, knowing what a holistic and sensitive guy I am, asked me to talk to her. I was glad to do it.

I made a couple of jokes and told her the first time is the worst because the doctor has to find the access, but once that is done it’s easy stuff. I also reminded her that I am a sissy and she was tougher than me, so I might start looking to her for courage and solace – we had a very good laugh. She did very well and was running around the docs waiting room giving me the thumbs up. I have to get mine used today.

Except for platelets, my blood counts were mediocre; nothing great, nothing overly bad. I really need to get tough with the scheduling secretary – you’ll see in a minute. My appointment was at 1520 yesterday and my platelets had plummeted to 17K. Normal is about 150K. The long and short of it is, I needed a transfusion immediately. I knew I would. I started getting nosebleeds yesterday afternoon; it’s call spontaneous bleeding and oncologists hate it. For some reason they want to keep as much blood as they can inside you, instead of on the floor around you.

So anyway it gets a little later and the doc is trying to “get me a bed” at the hospital so they can get me admitted, transfused, and sent home. It was too late in the day to use the hospital’s normal transfusion resources. If you’ve never had a transfusion, they are far more time consuming than you think. There are safety precautions, set up, and etc.

They put me in this thing called the Critical Decision Unit. I think it’s where they put patients while scratching their heads and figure out next steps (excuse this sentence’s parallel structure, oops). Nice folks! By the time all tee’s were crossed, I’s dotted, and transfusions done it was about 2230. I needed two bags of platelets.

At 0900 this morning I go for an outpatient chemo treatment. I usually cry the next day. So we’ll see what happens. You guys have a great day!

Peace,

Bill

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