Friday May 1 - Tuesday May 5. King's Hospital

Blood tests

On Friday morning I left home with my family and went by train to King's College Hospital.  The 'team' treating me seemed shocked that in the 6 days between being admitted to Lincoln County Hospital and leaving there on Thursday I had had a total of 5 units of blood and 2 units of platelets (not including the one where I freaked out, threw up and almost passed out. #Yolo). As expected I had the usual blood tests as well as having an uncountable amount of blood samples taken to be put through multiple tests from which I should know the results on May 18. There was a point where I felt I was going to pass out seeing as my blood was already really low before they decided to drain me for all these tests, due to this I was put into a nice reclining chair and given a hot chocolate. Living the dream.
I had a meeting with a doctor and nurse that I will be dealing with over the next several months. This meeting consisted of some physical examinations and a looooong talk. I don't want to say yet what seems most likely or less likely in relation to what I have as I don't want to tempt providence. However it does look like I will be needing a bone marrow transplant.

Vultures at uni have already stolen my room

I had more x-rays done and an ECG test where I have loads of mini magnet things stuck all over my chest which was weird.
King's hospital seemed really nice and I can see why it comes so highly respected and recommended and the staff were extremely dedicated and highly trained.


I wasn't required to stay overnight so I was able to go home that evening. Over the weekend and bank holiday I saw a couple of friends from home and had a glorious curry. Watched a lot of football and ate a lot of food.
 


Today I headed back to King's with my mum and sister. My sister Grace, was there to have a blood test. From the blood tests we would be able to know whether Grace will be a bone marrow match for me.
After Grace's blood test I had a catheter (canula) put into me again where I had several more blood samples taken from me. After these samples were taken I was told that I would be receiving a unit of platelets. My blood count is currently at 84, which isn't too bad seeing as it was 89 on Friday, this shows that my blood count isn't going down too quickly. I haven't had a unit of blood since last week Tuesday (April 28) when I left Lincoln County Hospital. My platelets on the other hand are still very low and drop much faster than my blood count. What platelets basically do is help clog up and stop bleeding. As mine are low I can lose a lot of blood from cuts, but hopefully this shouldn't be too much of a problem as generally I try to avoid being cut. While I was waiting for my platelets to be ready Grace went home to carry on revising for her AS levels.

Having the time of her life.

As requested I had a bag over my platelets due to me being such a wuss, I then spent the next half hour reading while the platelets went in.

I will be back at hospital on Thursday in order to have more blood tests and another bone marrow test, which I am dreading redoing. The last bone marrow test I had, despite at times being painful was alright. This was because I was ignorant to the whole thing and had close to no idea what was going on, I also only knew about it roughly half an hour before it began. This time I know what to expect, there is a lot more to dread, if that makes sense, so I'm looking forward to embarrassing myself in front of my mum and the staff on Thursday,