In the 'tank'

Tuesday went in had had bloodwork done, there are 3 parts to the blood, white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Normal platelet count is usually 15,000 - 40, 000, mine was 3,000 with red cells being low but not too bad. CDA to Spokane had NO platelets available, but when nurses were talking going through the underground tunnel, a surgeon said his surgery was cancelled and I could have his unit. So I got a transfusion of platelets and blood.

Wednesday went in again and this time there were 4 units of platelets available, but only for 'bleeders'. My count was up to 13000, but my reds were critical. While I was waiting in exam room my nose started seeping blood so guess what ... yep ... I got one of the 4 plus more blood.

Thursday (New Years day), no appointment, but tummy was screwy from having too sweet a breakfast, and later in the evening my temp went up to 100.3 (supposed to call if 100.5), took some Tylenol and it went down, but came back up when next dose due, so took 2 reg Tylenol. At 2am (Friday) I woke up suddenly feeling very good and my temp went down to 98.6 (my normal is around 97.9). When I told nurse she wasn't happy. Since my platelets were so low, I should have called when I was showing the fever. Anyway, today's labs showed my platelets dropped to 10,000, but my reds came up to low (9.something out of 10), so I got more platelets (they got a shipment in and I was able to get my blood type A+ for platelets this time (got O+) lst couple of times. However found out that my white blood cells (fight infection) were almost zip (.02 or something like that. So I'm very susceptible for infection.

When I got the Weds transfusion the blood products weren't "irritated" and doc said okay this time. The irradiation kills the antigens in the blood products to try to illuminate any reaction from the donor. Nurse (upstairs), said that could be a possible reason for the fever. Anyway felt pretty good today, tired right now, but I'm sure a nap won't hurt.

Jim made it to Boise okay, and will be home Monday, so I'll be home alone. I'll miss him, but he really needed to get away from all this medical, snow and get some face time with the granddaughter.

Love to all