Transfusions

After every round of chemo, my blood counts drop. If my white cell counts go down, I just have to wait for them to bounce back. If my hematocrit and platelets drop too low, I need transfusion(s).

Three interesting things about transfusions.

First, my blood type is actually “O to B”. This means that I used to be ‘O’, and after the stem cell transplant, I’m slowly taking my brother’s blood type ‘B’. I don’t know how the two types can co-exist, and why it’s taking so long for my original type to disappear, but for now I’m getting ‘O’ for my transfusions, because it’s universal.

Second, platelets come in bags of thick-looking, yellow liquid. Some are more yellow, some are more orange, kinda like different egg yolks. So the whole thing looks like beaten eggs. Add some milk, salt & pepper, pour the content in a pan, and you got yourself an omelette. Pretty gross imagery.

Third, platelet transfusions can give patients allergic reactions. I got the reactions several times, mostly very mild, in the form of a few hives on my face. To prevent that, nurses give patients Benadryl. In its pill form, it already acts pretty well as a sedative, usually making me drowsy enough to not want to move around. However, a few times, I’ve got IV Benadryl, and that seems like it could put a lion to sleep. I was knocked out instantly, slept 9AM-2PM. And I don’t think I was done either, except that my parents would arrive and wake me up.

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This is a pretty silly post about a pretty random topic. It’s rather easy to write something this light and short, but I expect the next few posts to be heavy and morbid. Recent events have changed my outlook from bleak to dismal (not sure if the two words are comparable, but dismal sounds worse). Depressing posts are coming. Just warning you all.