Ok so some stuff happened with me recently and I will share it!

Starting a week before my birthday, I began to bleed from a place we shall not talk about. This has happened before and I know the reason and it has always stopped and healed up on its own within a couple of days. My mother also has this happen to her. I've mentioned it to my doctor before and he always says to come in when it happens, but I never have in the last 10 years this has been happening, 'cause it is always healed before my appointment would come up and I am embarrassed to have someone looking up my areas.

So anyway... as time passed, it became harder and harder to walk around. I am talking like... my bathroom is about 20ft away and when I would get there, my eyes would be crossing and I wouldn't be able to breathe. My sister was all "I don't want to be rude, but maybe it is your weight?" and normally I would have considered that, but it wouldn't come on so suddenly like that.

Then I started getting other symptoms. I had a massive headache for a week that painkillers (my strongest ones I have ate Tylenol3s) wouldn't fix. I was dizzy and nauseated. My hands kept going numb (hard to draw!) I was always thirsty no matter how much water I drank, I was cold... I am usually never all that cold, I don't even turn on the heat in the apartment until the middle of winter.

At work I generally work in the back, but from about 2 to 5 on Tuesdays I am alone so I also have to run to the front to help customers and also that is what I do from 9:30 to 1:30 on Fridays. Last Tuesday I told my boss that I can't do to the front anymore because I was just too exhausted to do the walking. She knew about the bleeding and said that I should really talk to my doctor. I agreed and phoned the office immediately.

They said that they were booking appointments for the following week, but I was like "Ummm I really need something ASAP." so she booked me for that Thursday at 9am. I told my boss that I thought I would need a blood transfusion and hoped my doctor would agree. I worked my Tues/Wed (including the front even though I said I couldn't do it... and it was really hard) and got to go home an hour early on Wednesday. I watched my sister play her new Xbox for a bit, then had a nap. I got up at about 8pm and had supper and watched her play a different game. I went back to my room to my computer and just got so much worse. I was so dizzy and confused that I could barely type. It was now 11pm and I told my sister that I needed to go to the hospital RIGHT NOW and then called 911 'cause I figured it would be faster.

The paramedics came and took my vitals and whatnot and took me to the emergency room. They (with great difficulty) drew some blood from my veins and did some tests. When they came back, my ER nurse didn't even believe them and wanted them tested again. The hemoglobin count was 40. To put this in perspective, a normal level is about 120 to 130. I pretty much nearly died of a massive (slow) hemorrhage. I had 1/3 of the blood I should have had. They ordered 4 units right away and got me going. I pretty much got no sleep at all that night. The next morning they took me down for an exploratory procedure to see if they could find the source of the bleed. That particular surgeon did not... though I know the general area of where the blood was coming from.

Over the next few days I got to sit around, bored out of my skull getting blood draws frequently and more units of blood. In all, I received TEN baggies of blood. That is quite a few! All of the nurses and doctors I talked to were totally flabbergasted at how low my hemoglobin was and to top that off, that I was still making an effort to walk around and go to work. One even said that the lowest count she had previously seen was 60 and that person had to be bedridden 'cause they couldn't walk around anymore.

So anyway, so far my bleed has stopped, so when I saw my GP this morning, I asked if I could please go home. He agreed, but I will still need to go in to consult with a surgeon about exploring deeper into my body.

I took a bunch of pictures with my old phone of my blood transfusion equipment and all that, and tried to upload them but my service provider apparently doesn't let you upload them to their servers anymore so I don't know how to get the pics off my phone. It isn't a smartphone that can do it easily, so I emailed support to ask. I do have pics of my hospital bracelet and of one of the many, many, many, many sites where the nurses jabbed me with needles!

[link] <-- real name blurred of course.
[link] <-- i've never been this shade of purple before!

Now I have a week off of work to finish healing up. I am glad it is a 3-pay-day month for me. I should be able to make it, even without earning anything on one of the weeks. XD


edit: Oh yeah, and since Wednesday night, all I've been allowed to eat was Jello... and I didn't want it most of the time. I am having some of my sisters homemade chicken soup right now and it is SO GOOD... I am even eating the onions.