This Train

Well, my first full day back from the hospital and I was looking forward to a relaxing day. Boy was I wrong! It was mid-noon and I was about to have some lunch, when I felt a tickle in my nose. (I'd been having a bit of a runny nose the past few days.) I dabbed my nose with a tissue and was surprised to see red!

After 10 minutes, the blood was still flowing steadily and the pile of bloody tissues was fast growing. I paged my wife at work and she promptly advised me to call for an ambulance. They rushed me over to Emergency, where I had to wait about 40 minutes, before I got a bed. Of course, by this time, I had stopped bleeding. Then I sat there for 10 minutes before the Head Nurse came to see me. She proceeded to take vital signs and draw blood. At first, she didn't even know which of the 3 lines on my Hickman was for blood work; I told her I would bet on the one that was red, but suggested she check. She ran out and inquired; yup, I was right. I got very nervous as I watched her fumble around with my Hickman line. My uneasiness tuned to alarm when after several attempts, she was unable to draw blood (it's quite easy with a Hickman line!). So she ran out again for help.

She came back and had Anne take over for her (for which I thank the good Lord); she drew blood the first time, no problem. Anyhow, then I just sat around for over an hour, waiting for the blood test results (to see what my counts were). Finally, they announced that my platelet count was low (20) and they were going to transfuse me. This required another 30 minutes wait before the bags arrived. The platelet transfusion (my 6th one so far) itself took almost 2 hours.

The boredom was alleviated by my wife leaving work early just to be with me, and then later, my friend Paul dropped by to keep me company, and even drove me home (I didn't leave the hospital 'til 7:15 pm).

So, as you can see, don't get too excited that I've had my ATG treatment. The next few months are very precarious as I wait for my bone marrow to (hopefully) respond. In the meantime, I am at high risk for all manner of viral, bacterial and fungal infections (including aspergillus), and bleeding. Also, it's vital that the blood transfusion blood products are irradiated against CMV (cytomegalovirus). Then there's the concern of iron overload from the blood transfusions, not to mention sensitization to the transfusion products themselves. Also, there's the real risk of catheter site infection (like from sloppy handling by nurses). Of course, there's all the side effects and possible long-term negative implications from all the drugs I 'm taking.

So please remember, the real battle's just beginning! I've got a long way to go still ...

However, I'm glad to be alive, and I still have hope that I'll be around to see my kids grow up!