Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Happy Tuesday, sad toad.

I'm bored. Early post! So, I'm not really a messy person. My room is messy right now, but it's an organized mess that I am slowly picking up. But I prefer to have my life in order. I am, however, pretty careless in terms of taking care of myself. Meaning, I don't really care or notice what happens to my body. For example: I thought it was funny that I was getting huge and long-lasting bruises the first months of school. (they were actually the first signs of my leukemia. Bruising easily means your platelets are low. Which makes sense, since I wasn't producing any.) So I bruised and didn't listen to my friends who told me to go see a doctor. And we all know how that ended up. For other examples: I bump into things a lot. I walk into corners, tables, doors, etc, a lot more than most people. And it seriously doesn't bother me. It's a neat trick, my tolerance for pain. One time at the hospital, when I was dehydrated, I got up to go to the bathroom, and I actually briefly blacked out and almost fell (I caught myself one one of the bathroom handrails), but I bumped my head on the wall. I told my doctor about it because I thought it was funny. They didn't. I had to get a CT scan of my head. But anyway. So yesterday I was at the gym, and I bumped the top of my head on one of the machines. Didn't think anything of it, just went right on and did my sets. And then I got home and took off my hat. And there was this fantastic red scrape right across the top of my scalp. And it occurred to me that perhaps I should maybe start watching out for things like that. Because now I don't have hair to hide my idiocy and carelessness. The good news is my platelet count is way normal, so I'm not bruising like an abused person anymore, although I still run into things. I actually poked my finger with a fork today when I was putting away dishes. You wish you were me and my awesomeness.

Also: I'm getting a blood transfusion tomorrow because I've been feeling a bit anemic. Tired, my heart starts racing after only a little overexertion, and there's a fun tingling in my legs sometimes. My counts are actually fine for a cancer patient, although they're slightly low for a normal person. My hemoglobin (red blood cell count) is at 9.4. They transfuse people usually when it gets below 8, and the normal number for an active 20-year old female is between 14 and 15. So I'm getting me some blood. My doctor knows I'm active, and no one wants me passing out on the treadmill. I'm excited because that means I'll have more energy and color in my face again. Woo. And that's about it for now. Watch out for solid, inanimate, potentially hazardous household objects. I know I will be. Pax.

1 comment:

Megan/Yuping said...

"I'm getting a blood transfusion tomorrow because I've been feeling a bit anemic."

I laughed really hard when I read that. Because, it's kind of like me coming home and saying, "Man, I feel a little cold coming on--I should chug some orange juice." Except that yours is anemia. Awesome question mark.