Posts tagged 'Stem Cell Transplant (SCT)'

As predicted

Posted by on March 17th 2019 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof
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Two days ago: "... I suspect that they will find a reason to admit me on Sunday after the check-up results are in."

Sunday: admitted to Ward 41 after a seven-hour wait in the Osborne Assessment Unit, platelet count way down at 17 × 109 cells/L (Normal: 140–400 × 109 cells/L), neither sign nor hint that there are any matched platelets on-site for me.

And now I'm told that I need an MRI scan in addition to the heart test/scan and the breathing test.

Add to that the fact that the Ward Sister can't figure out why I was prescribed Ranitidine pills... as far as we can determine, it was to protect my digestive system from the effects of the steroid treatment that I was having for inflamed heels... but that treatment was Hydrocortisone cream... topical, not oral!!!

This could be a busy week. Plenty of nonsense to get sorted out, plenty of faith in need of restoration, and plenty of rides out in the ambulance. Probably no "blues and twos" though.

Image supplied by CJR.

A tad testy

Posted by on March 15th 2019 in A bit of a rant, Health, or lack thereof
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Back at Day Ward today, platelet count 32 × 109 cells/L (Normal: 140–400 × 109 cells/L), hopefully they will be enough to see me through to Sunday (yes, Sunday) as they didn't give me any today. I have no idea if they've ordered any platelets in advance, but I'm going to need them.

Throughout the day I've been fielding calls from Glenfield Hospital telling me that I have appointments for tests next week... the first call was for a heart test/scan. It took me a while to realise that this wasn't another periodic follow-up check related to the angioplasty/stent operation that I had a few years back. They wanted me in next Monday for that, but at the time of the call I was still scheduled to be in Day Ward at LRI on Monday, so I asked them to work it out with the LRI Haematology Red Team.

Then another call... a breathing test. They wanted me in next Tuesday for that, but at the time of the call I was still scheduled to be in Hambleton clinic at LRI on Tuesday for "The Big Pre-SCT Chat", so they said that next Thursday would be OK.

Somebody in the Red Team had pressed the Big Red Button to start the ball rolling for SCT, but nobody in the Red Team had bothered to tell me beforehand.

No surprises there, then. Thanks a bunch.

To be fair, one of the Red Team consultants did take me aside a few hours later to explain the situation, but it would have been far better to have been told before the calls started coming in. Forewarned is forearmed. At the moment life is complicated enough without all of these calls out of the blue.

And I still don't know if I have to be back at Day Ward on Monday. I'm only guessing here, but I suspect that they will find a reason to admit me on Sunday after the check-up results are in. If they do, they can have the pleasure of sorting out all of the surprise appointments and arrange transport etc..
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