BLOOD...... PART 3 ! "THIS TIME IT'S FOR REAL!"

Salem Hospital "2 pint Blood Transfusion..9 days post surgery..ugh! The guy who transferred me back to the rehab next door at 2:30am..called himself a vampire because he works the night shift..I said, "no offense buddy ,but I just had 2 pints of blood and haven't slept in 2 weeks so I think I trump you in being vampy ;-p"


To backtrack a moment I wasn't sure there was ever to be a Blood 3 ..since Blood 1 didn't go so well, Blood 2 was canceled, so Blood 3 actually was a total surprise in so many ways ;) For anyone who has not read my previous posts: Blood Part 1 was where I had to go to give my blood at Children's Hospital (my autologous donation) just in case I needed a blood transfusion during surgery... because of the few "incidences" in Blood #1 Children's Hospital and Dr. M canceled Blood "donation" #2.

During my nine days at Children's Hospital I never received my blood so I thought I was in the clear...guess what..I was wrong...hey there is always a first ;)

After my stay at the hospital my surgeon didn't feel I was "qualified" to go home yet, but I didn't need to be at CH...so he sent to me to rehab...(Physical Rehab)...pretty much another kind of hospital.  If it looks like a hospital, if you get woken up all night long to take vitals, if you are sleeping in a hospital bed, if a nurse brings you meds, if you are NOT allowed to do ANYTHING on your own..you can wrap it up in a pretty new name like rehab center..but trust me..it was just another hospital.

I arrived at my new home late Fri evening...So at this point I went from being the oldest patient at Children's Hospital to the YOUNGEST (by like 30 years) at the nursing home....oh I mean hospital..oh forgive me  I mean Rehab Center ;)  Lets just put it this way..I was missing being in the hospital when I arrived there.  To be honest I wasn't sure I was going to make it through the night... if I had both legs working I would have ran as fast as I could out of there..but that did not happen.

Saturday morning I was woken up by a man who wanted to take my blood  (and no it wasn't a hot vampire like Edward, Bill, or Erik..bummer) just a dude named Matt who was sent there to do it ,because it was his job. Matt also wanted to put an IV in me, so he jumped on that duty first. Lets says it didn't go according to plan..but we sure saw some BLOOD. Between my testy vein , the lady who was w/ him dropping the vial of blood, and my blood thinners..it really started to become a horror movie..bloody bruised arm..blood on my comforters and sheets...ICK...(it was so icky...I didn't even want to take a picture of this mess) Great experience here at rehab so far! After they cleaned up that "bloody mess" Matt went for the other arm..promising better results..OK???
He kept his promise.

Awhile later my new Dr came in (well she was the covering Dr for the Dr I was going to have while I was at rehab..got it) So Dr. New said she got back my blood results and my hematic rate was very low (22) and.my blood count was low 7/12 and I was very anemic which meant in basic terms= you are getting a 2 pint blood transfusion..Have a good day!!  Hmmm...what did you just say????

So at that point I was not allowed out of bed..due to my dizziness and low blood pressure..I had some of my friends there distracting me while I was waiting (Thank you so much Nancy, Fanny, D, Mark, Mom, Carrie, and Pete..and "the magazine"..lol)  Then around 5:00pm (yes it took all day to get this going..I was wheeled over to the Salem Hospital...The Hospital was attached to the Rehab Center) They admitted me to one of the floors and gave me a room.  Then I was told it was going to take 8 HOURS..4 HOURS for each pint..huh? I guess this was going to be a long night.  They went over all the risks..I love that part... nothing like telling a nervous person in pain all the possibilities of what could go wrong. Then they brought in the BLOOD (bag one) and set it up...no bad reactions..actually it didn't feel weird at all..It was like getting a regular IV..I started relaxing after the first half hour (they said most reactions happen w/in first half hour so I was standing guard..just in case) I thought hey this isn't going to be so bad until the moment my pain meds started to wear off, and I asked the nurse for more and she said..NO..."whatcha talkin about Willis" was the first line that came into my head..please explain nurse~  She then went on to tell me that I couldn't take the pain meds, because it could mask a reaction especially w/ a 2nd bag coming up. OK.. I was so NOT ok w/ this.  This was the first time since surgery where I was not totally medded up and was about to come off the morphine cold turkey and feel the pain of my massive surgery as well as getting a blood transfusion for another 4 hours where I could not move..I really did feel like I was in a horror movie and this was the torture scene.  D and the Nurse got tons of ice packs for me and covered my hip and leg to help w/ the pain..the next 4 hours were awful..enough said.

Thank You to my friends who kept me distracted during the day ..Thank You to my family for their encouragement and support because I was so scared ..Thank you to Carrie for the Indian food even though we now know Indian food and blood transfusions do not go hand in hand..LOL.."is it getting hot in here" Thank you to Carrie, Pete, and Mark for keeping me distracted during the first bag..and a very special Thank You to D for being w/ me every step of the way and sitting w/ me for the whole 8 hours..and for getting me through those last 4...can't ever thank you enough for that!

Conclusion: I got my pain meds the moment I got back to my room at Rehab...literally they were waiting in the room for me w/ them..D made some calls... and the next day I actually felt a little stronger due to my new BLOOD!!!!!  The End :)