Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Health Update

Okay, so I can't believe it either but it's been a year since I last saw the Hematologist. Yes, I was supposed to see him sooner - sooner as in 6 months ago. I am such the worst patient :)

The recap from last year: HERE

Here's the thing - if the doctor tells me it's probably nothing then to me it's basically nothing. A year ago that's what he said.

Today, that's not what he said.

You know it's bad when the doctor walks in holding my blood test results and says "I'm very glad you came back in to see me." I might be a nice patient but certainly not nice enough for that welcome!

Turns out my platelet counts are still quite low - 64,000 low (normal is between 140,000 and 440,000 - dangerous is 30,000).

So, at this point the doctor believes that something is actually wrong and we have to figure out what it is. He's okay with my levels staying low - maybe that's normal for me - but he has to know how to get my levels back up in case of an emergency or a surgery.

To start off with I'm taking a very strong vitamin for a month - this will increase my iron, B12 and folic acid in case any of those are low and causing the problem (he drew about 14 vials of blood to see if he could pinpoint the cause). In a month I will go back and be re-tested.

If this does not take care of the problem then I will be put on steroids. So help me I do NOT want that! His goal is avoid long-term steroids but if the vitamins don't work he will try a powerful 4-day steroid regimen to see if they will get my platelet count up. Again, if he knows it works then it will be what I have to go through before future surgeries or in case of an emergency.

Just what I need to make my life more interesting! As if having triplets wasn't enough :)

2 comments:

Cherie said...

I'll start praying right now. :)

(I'll also start nagging you to go to the doctor sooner!)

:)

Your blog header is AMAZING--I've got to convince Matt to hire Kate!

Andrea said...

I'm so sorry to hear this. Praying that the vitamins work!