It's been two years...
Jan. 26th, 2013 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI assume that at some stage I'll look at the calendar on January 26th and not be thinking about where I was at this time N years ago. This isn't that year.
It is now officially two years since was admitted to the ER for emergency blood transfusions due to (then) undiagnosed severe extensive ulcerative colitis. I'd lost half my blood volume and couldn't sit up or stand up for long without feeling faint and dizzy. I was having unexpected 'naps' regularly, getting winded walking anywhere and the nurses were frankly amazed that I was still conscious with my numbers where they were.
I've mostly got past the bit in the saga where the urgent care clinic docs insisted there was nothing wrong with me. It happened and it sucked but it won't happen again because Awesome GI Guy keeps a close eye on me.
What still blows me away is that somewhere out there are three people who donated blood and saved my life. The nurses assured me that had I not received blood when I did, I would have been unconscious by the following morning and dead a day or two after that.
Those three units of blood literally saved my life that night.
I've been able to thank the doctors and nurses who worked on me that night and the doctors who have treated me since. The researchers who developed the drugs (and are still developing new, better drugs) that have kept me going since then are people I'll never be able to thank but hopefully they know how important they are to the lives of patients like me.
But the most important part of January 26th 2011 was the three units of blood I received.
Due to my medical history I can't donate blood or bone marrow. I'm signed up as an organ and tissue donor, but there's a good chance that they won't be able to harvest much from me when I die. So I've got no practical way to give back to the donor system that helped me and will probably help me again in the future.
The best I can do is this: giving blood saves lives. I'm living proof of this. If you can give blood, please do it and know that those of us who are unfortunate enough to need it really do value your gift and we thank you from the bottoms of our still-beating hearts.
It is now officially two years since was admitted to the ER for emergency blood transfusions due to (then) undiagnosed severe extensive ulcerative colitis. I'd lost half my blood volume and couldn't sit up or stand up for long without feeling faint and dizzy. I was having unexpected 'naps' regularly, getting winded walking anywhere and the nurses were frankly amazed that I was still conscious with my numbers where they were.
I've mostly got past the bit in the saga where the urgent care clinic docs insisted there was nothing wrong with me. It happened and it sucked but it won't happen again because Awesome GI Guy keeps a close eye on me.
What still blows me away is that somewhere out there are three people who donated blood and saved my life. The nurses assured me that had I not received blood when I did, I would have been unconscious by the following morning and dead a day or two after that.
Those three units of blood literally saved my life that night.
I've been able to thank the doctors and nurses who worked on me that night and the doctors who have treated me since. The researchers who developed the drugs (and are still developing new, better drugs) that have kept me going since then are people I'll never be able to thank but hopefully they know how important they are to the lives of patients like me.
But the most important part of January 26th 2011 was the three units of blood I received.
Due to my medical history I can't donate blood or bone marrow. I'm signed up as an organ and tissue donor, but there's a good chance that they won't be able to harvest much from me when I die. So I've got no practical way to give back to the donor system that helped me and will probably help me again in the future.
The best I can do is this: giving blood saves lives. I'm living proof of this. If you can give blood, please do it and know that those of us who are unfortunate enough to need it really do value your gift and we thank you from the bottoms of our still-beating hearts.
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-29 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 04:34 pm (UTC)I did as soon as I could, and notched up more than 25 units (I got in the paper with my Dad as I gave my 25th when he gave his 50th).
At some point, by body changed. It got harder and harder for the vampires to get the blood out of me, even with me drinking water and exercising before donation. I finally made the desicion that it wasn't worth the £75 or whatever it cost them to stick a needle in my arm, if they couldn't get anything useful out; so stopped going.
If anything changes, and I start getting really bad nosebleeds again (one of the reasons I gave blood in the first place), I shall start again.
There are so many restrictions to giving blood, that I believe anyone who can, should make the effort. I hate needles, but I managed to go.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-26 05:26 pm (UTC)I can't give blood anymore as a precaution in the new regulations. :( But when I still could the vampires had about 20 units off me, that paid back the 3 blood/2 plasma I had, the 8 blood my uncle had and wipes out your 3 units. *squish* CONSIDER YOUR TAB PAID IN ADVANCE. ;D
It really does worry me about how few people who're eligible DO give blood, though. :( Mostly 'cause it takes a transfusion to get 'em to see this stuff isn't going to waste and transfusions rule you out of giving blood... Yeah. Worrying. :(
no subject
Date: 2013-01-27 09:01 am (UTC)Commiserations on your two year anniversary - Redemption is my four year anniversary of being dizzy.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-03 10:27 am (UTC)And that's enough. Concrete trumps abstract, every time.
I'm lucky: I seem to be able to donate without any problems at all. Been turned away a few times because of recent travel, or because of unrelated pending medical assessments ("Let's just see what the GP says first, eh?"). Think I'm at about 12 units, now.