Monday morning they drew multiple vials of blood. They, of course, wanted to check my numbers, but also wanted to start ruling out certain illnesses and determining the underlying cause of my anemia. They checked for various things, including low iron, vitamin B12 deficiency, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis, lupus, and HIV. They tried to determine if my antidepressants or birth control could be causing a problem.
My hemoglobin was down to 5.9 overnight. The doctor wasn’t super concerned because they had only expected it to hit 6.2 the day before, but they upped the steroids to three times a day and scheduled another two units of blood to be transfused. My mom and dad hopped in the car and rushed back to Saratoga. Luckily, the transfusion went well again and my numbers an hour later were at 8.9 (another three point jump)!
The hematologist had the nurses put foot compressors on my feet to keep my blood flowing and prevent clotting. This was due in part to the fact that my platelets dropped to 27,000. Also, I was switched from “wheelchair to bathroom” to “standby assist”, meaning someone only had to walk me to and from the bathroom and not wheel me there! I was able to sit up without being out of breath and now we just had to wait to see what Tuesday’s numbers and test results brought!