- Hemoglobin 7.9 (normal 14.0-17.3)
- Absolute neutrophil count 0.7 (normal 1.4-7.5)
- White blood cell count 0.9 (normal 4-10)
- Platelet count 134 (normal 150-450)
So they gave me a blood transfusion. I had no idea how long it would take. The answer: a long time. Dragged myself to the hospital at 1 PM for blood tests. Hemoglobin down to 7.9, so no wonder I felt like roadkill. They scheduled the transfusion for 2 PM, but cross-matching took longer than expected and I didn't get into my chair until 3. The runner didn't show up with the first unit of blood until 3:30. By then I was practically moaning.Consent form: common risk of fever, chills, vomiting, allergic reaction. Uncommon risks of kidney and liver failure (mostly in old people). 1 in 100,000 risk of infection with HIV, hepatitis, or some other horrible virus. I signed off. The nurse put in my IV. I swallowed "premedication": Tylenol and Benadryl, to fend off fever and histamine reactions. Then a complicated, extremely careful cross-checking procedure, with one nurse reading off my information to another, who double-checked her.
Finally the transfusion began. Each unit of blood took about 1.5 hours to pump in; they gave me two. My headache disappeared, but I stayed very groggy, due no doubt to Benadryl on top of no sleep. My temperature rose to about 99.5° (my normal's 97.8°). After the second unit, they kept me there for a half-hour observation period. Went home, still groggy, and put Luka to bed, then crashed myself, still running a slight fever. Woke up at one point in a puddle of sweat, but this didn't recur and I felt more or less normal this morning.
Feeling like a million bucks would not be a good way to describe my current state. Maybe ten bucks. Definitely better than yesterday morning, when I felt like the national debt. Still tired, sore all over.
Dr. B's excellent nurse said the transfusion should boost my hemoglobin to somewhere in the 9-10 range — still below where I'd feel semi-normal, but a lot better than the 7s and 8s. The effect might last a week, but it'll decline during that period. This should take me past the bottom of the trough in my own production of red cells and hemoglobin, which should start to finally rise next week. But I might need another transfusion if it doesn't pick up quickly. Median time to normal hemoglobin is 8 weeks after chemo.
It's strange to feel somebody else's blood in my veins: actually, two people's blood, since I got two units. I thank them, profoundly, whoever they are. This makes me glad I gave blood a few times, though two more transfusions would probably exhaust my karma. I don't know whether they'll let me donate blood in the future, given the hairy cell, but if they will I'll be doing that.
My statistics show a definite upward trend in immune counts. Platelets recover before anything else. Mine should reach the low end of normal next week! Neutrophil counts have risen back to where they were in October. So the bone marrow's working; it just takes longer to start putting out new red cells and hemoglobin. This part nobody warned me about. I'd focused on the immune counts, but the exhaustion from the low red counts will persist at least a couple more weeks.
Other problems might be coming. Several teeth are getting really sensitive, probably from anxiety-related nighttime grinding, but conceivably from infection. All the lying down is taking a toll on my muscles; I'm prone to hip muscle spasms in this kind of condition. I'd hoped to take a walk this morning, but it's 12° here. Maybe the temperature will come up in the afternoon. Somehow I've got to take advantage of this brief reprieve from total exhaustion to move my body a bit.
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