Don't count your red cells before they are, err, hatched

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I went to the day unit this morning to have my normal bloods taken and have my hickman line serviced. The nurses flush both lumens, change the bionectors (the end seals) and change my dressing. I also had the stitch removed that was initially helping secure the line in my chest as the wound is now all healed over the cuff that keeps it in place.

I asked about my blood results from Friday and all my counts were back to normal apart from my haemoglobin ( red blood cells ) which was only at 9. This is quite low and below 8.5 I would be given a blood transfusion to bring the levels up. However I don't have any anaemia symptoms like breathlessness or excessive tiredness so the count has probably already risen since Friday.

So I'm not quite ready to start chasing to go back in to hospital for my final round of chemo; they'd prefer my haemoglobin to be around 10 or 11 I think as that is what it came back to last time.

I'm back on the day unit for bloods on Wednesday when I'll be able to check the results from today. Hopefully things will have improved and then I can reduce my visits to the day unit to once a week to service my line and start chasing for the final round of chemo.

This final round will be w/c 30th June at the earliest now I would guess. At least this means it's pretty certain I won't be spending my birthday ( this friday ) in hospital.

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