Wednesday May 20 - Sunday May 24. More Transfusions, Lincoln and the Anthony Nolan Register

Looks like I have a sock puppet.

Wednesday was a non-hospital day. I went for a really nice meal with my mum and sister.


Thursday I was back at hospital for a few transfusions. I went through the usual procedure of blood tests being taken from me and a cannula inserted into the crook of my arm. I was told that my platelet count was 11, normal is roughly 150. I think the highest mine has been since all this started was 30.
The nurses told me that I had an hour or so to kill before the transfusions would be ready so they gave me some sleeve thing to go over my cannula, and I headed off to a cafe by the station with my mum for a bit. I also asked to see the wards/rooms that I would be staying in when I am in hospital for a few weeks undergoing my ACG treatment. The rooms looked fairly small, but had WiFi (wooo), I will effectively be in quarantine and to enter my room requires people to scrub up before hand and to wear aprons and gloves. I'm not currently sure how easy it would be to have visitors.

Once we were back at the hospital I was pumped full of medication for my platelet transfusion to make sure that I didn't have a reaction. The medication makes you really drowsy and it can be hard to concentrate and focus. Platelets take about 30-40 minutes before they finish, soon after I was brought my first of two units of blood, each one takes a couple of hours which makes the whole process very boring. Thankfully there was very little wait between each unit and I was out of hospital by 7pm.


Not much happened Friday, I'm getting used to staying in and being in bed by 11pm. I'm starting to feel old, even my sister is going out to parties and staying out later than me.

Saturday was an early start as my parents and I were heading to my student house in Lincoln to pack up all my stuff. It was great to see my housemates and a lot of my friends who were still at Lincoln. They helped me pack and clear out my room and we had a couple of hours in the student bar before I had to start leaving. It felt weird properly leaving Lincoln and all my mates, officially moved out of my house and yet I still haven't finished my course.

Look at that lovely bunch.

Sunday was a lazy day. I saw my mate Suneel, watched football and had a glorious roast.


In the last few weeks I have been receiving countless texts and messages, even from people who I have never met, it's amazed me how considerate and caring the majority of people are. A common pattern among these messages is that people want to know how to donate blood, bone marrow, everything. I've been surprised by how selfless people are.
If people do genuinely want to try and help, a great thing to do is get on to the Anthony Nolan register. This is a register that connects people all over the world in their search for bone marrow matches and donors. To do this please go on the Anthony Nolan website (www.anthonynolan.org), from there you can sign up to become a bone marrow donor. All it requires is answering a few simple questions and the organisation will send you a spit kit. You just have to spit in the equipment provided and send it back to them. It is extremely unlikely that you can donate straight to me, but there is a chance that you could help someone else, and requires very little effort on the part of the donor.
You can also donate blood, or platelets. This just requires a quick google search to find your closest donation center and any information needed. I think I'm draining the NHS of its supplies.
I'm very grateful to all who have done any of this, and contacted me for information etc and who knows, maybe it will come to me. I'm always looking for fresh blood.
Thanks especially to Tom, Chris, Olly and Anna who have already done this. Amazing.

Absolute star.