T + 22 Transplant Clinic

Today was my first transplant clinic, something that will become a regular weekly Wednesday visit.

Dad took me up as I am still not feeling up to driving, especially in the morning when I have my morning crash for an hour or so.

We got there for 10:30 and were seen by about 11:30. I'd had blood taken and they are able to get reasonably accurate instant results right there. The consultant checked how I was doing and had a general chat about how I had been since I had come out.

He went over my counts, which were as follows ( figures in brackets are the normal ranges expected in a healthy person )

White Blood Cells 2.1 ( 4 - 11 )
Neutrophils 1.2 ( 2 - 7.5 )
Haemoglobin 8.6 ( 13 - 18 )
Platelents 126 ( 150 - 440 )

He said the neutrophil and white cells are just about where he would expect them to be at this stage, my platelets are ahead of the game and by haemoglobin is low, making me officially anaemic. This is quite common as red blood cells are the most sluggish to recover after a transplant.

The doctor arranged for me to have a blood cross match when I go to the day unit on Friday so that I can have a blood transfusion of two units of red cells on Monday as an outpatient.

The anaemia will go some way to explaining the tiredness. Mind you when I was discharged on Monday my haemoglobin was 10.6 and the cut off for a transfusion is 10.

One of the things that could effect the value is the amount of fluid I am taking in which will to some extent dilute reading in the blood. So we will see what my reading is on Friday and whether I need to proceed with the transfusion on Monday, but my guess is that I will.

After seeing the doc the nurse sorted me out a sick note, took off the dressing and removed the stitches from where I had my line removed last week.

I was all done by about 12:15 and back at Mom and Dad's having lunch about 13:00

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