I had a..... weird? dream last night.

Yes, friends, I am still alive. And kicking. But first my dream: so, there were many parts, but the main one I remember is running into a guy I knew/know, and I was crying. He held me and said something like, "Here, feel my platelets going into you." It sounds creepy, but it wasn't. Anyway, we started kissing, and I was feeling better until the guy I had been kissing earlier ran by and saw us. So I got up and ran after him. There was a lot of running in this dream. But at least I got platelets? Anyway, I woke up sort of sad because it was just a dream, and I hadn't actually kissed two (possibly three) guys last night. Haha.

Anyway, so I am in the hospital. On Friday, when my infection first showed itself and I was admitted to the hospital, my white blood cell count was 0.1. My platelet count was 2, and it should be over 150. My hemoglobin was 7.0, when it should normally be over 11.5. I don't remember exactly what the hemoglobin measures, but it's the main determinant for receiving blood. Anyway, my blood was quickly running out. I received an antibiotic while I was in clinic, waiting for a bed. Once I was admitted, I received two units of red blood cells, and that evening, I received two units of platelets. I also went for a chest x-ray and a CT scan, to check for "spontaneous bleeding" on my brain. Luckily, that test came back negative.

When you come in to the hospital because of an infection, the first thing the doctors do is order blood cultures drawn. Basically, the lab techs come and draw blood into specially cultured liquids in which bacteria can grow. And bacteria certainly grew! I found out yesterday that one of my cultures had grown. My doctor confirmed for me that I did have bacteria floating around in my blood stream, which is bad, and that those bacteria are specifically gram-negative rods, which is really bad. Now, I'm not going to lie, I was kind of excited when he told me that because I was like, "I know what those are!" Once again the biology class, whose exam I'm supposed to be studying for, came in handy. Basically, gram-negative rod bacteria are rod-shaped, they stain either purple or pink (I don't remember which) in the Gram stain, and they are more virulent than gram-positive ones. They won't know exactly what the bacteria is until they let it grow some more and do more staining.

The good news is that I am responding well to the antibiotic. I haven't had a fever in over 24 hours, and I feel much better. I also received two more units of blood yesterday, so I am back to --relative-- normalcy! At least I'm not getting dizzy anymore. But now comes the dreaded waiting. Once again, I probably won't be out of here for a while. Not only are my white blood cells too low, but now I have an actual infection, and my doctors will want to be certain that it's gone. I don't know how long that could take. Hopefully not too, but we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm doing better now, and that's the important part. Stay tuned tomorrow for an update on the ongoing saga of the ridiculousness of bureaucracy! Pax.