T + 45 A Bit of A Funny Turn

Has it really been four days since I posted a blog entry? Sorry about that, though I do have a good excuse for yesterday, more of which anon.

On Wednesday I went to the transplant clinic. It was fairly routine but my neutrophils had dropped from 1.1 to 0.8 and 1.0 is seen as a cut off value. So the doctor prescribed some GCSF injections to help boost my counts. Only two injections one Thursday and one Saturday so hopefully the bone pain I often get with GCSF shouldn't bee too bad.

It's perfectly normal for my neutrophils to fluctuate a bit, one of the drugs I take, septrin, depresses the count anyway and it's possible my body is just fighting a bit of an infection. Overall the doctor said my progress was fine and we had to remember this was only day 43 post transplant.

My haemoglobin was 9.6 and the cut off area for a transfusion is around 10.0 so the doc said he would need to keep an eye on that.

Well yesterday I had a bit of a funny turn. I was in the bathroom washing my hands after having gone to the loo and I start to feel feint, my heart rate went up, I felt like I was going to throw up and I came out in a cold sweat.

I had to sit down with a bowl in front of me for five or ten minutes until things settled down a bit. I had a few dry retches but wasn't actually sick however that did start to make me feel a bit better. The best way I can describe it is how you can feel when you have really exerted yourself at a sport and get that sick feeling ( not that I have done that for a long, long time).

I did my temperature ( normal ) and my blood pressure which was a little lower , 112/77 but not massively so. My pulse was 99 which was a bit high.

From then on it was like someone had flicked a switch and turned off all my energy. I felt really tired and simple tasks like putting my socks on got me really out of breath. I had a couple of naps during the day and just spent the rest of the time like a pink floppy sandbag on the sofa letting the TV wash over me.

Today I feel quite a bit better. I have a bit of a headache and my energy levels are not what that have been but more bearable than yesterday.

I'm not sure what caused my funny turn. Maybe I stood up a bit too quick and my blood pressure went wonky. It was 20 minutes after I had given myself my GCSF injection but I've never had a reaction like that before.

I think my haemoglobin may have dropped some more as I have that kind of tiredness now and maybe that is the main cause of the problem.

I'm at the day unit for regular blood tests on Monday so we will see what they show. I'll be taking it very easy over the weekend that's for sure.

All this has been a timely if unwelcome reminder that I'm still in the early days of a long process of recovery and I can't take for granted feeling fit and healthy every day.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

T + 64 Colds to Left of Them, Cold to the Right of Them

T + 188 Hackery, Bakery, Accident and Emergency

T + 69 Putting My Feet Up