Fishin' for hemoglobin, that is.
Friday is another all-day red blood cell love-in at the hospital pour moi. At the risk of sounding like I'm in high school, here is the lowdown on my medical dating life:
This time I'm at a new hospital since last month's break-up with my old hematologist (he of the hospital where they always acted like my veins were WMD: "I swear they're here, I just can't pinpoint them! Yessiree; I'm just a bit incompetent with the locating thing, so I'll make several attempts to do so, at great cost and pain..."), which led to my new hottie Johns Hopkins hematologist for a short time. Now, since I have a new, more local doctor for day-to-day stuff like transfusions, I only see my JHU Hottie Hebrew Hematologist every now and again. Sad. Luckily he's still in the picture once a quarter; can I get an amen?
So. Today's transfusion is with that new-new, not-hot, 70-something eminence grise hematologist right here in DC. He's good. And he's got the credentials, including the fact that my HHHH from JHU was a resident under him back in the day. I could regale you with his litany of prodigious medical accomplishments, but the truth is, if he's good enough for H4, he's good enough for me.
So, I'll no doubt spend my day writing a bunch of post-election tripe and random medical-drama rants, with which I will burden you post haste. But just not today.
Oh, ps: Public Service Announcement
If you are at all inclined to donate blood (or, quite frankly, have never felt inclined to donate blood), all I can say is that the whole 1-800-GIVE-LIFE thing is really actually true. Without some nice (HIV-, CMV-, Hepatitis C-negative, please!) people donating their blood in return for nuthin' but some saltines and apple juice, I'd be "tits up" right now. I'm pretty much livin' on donated blood these days since my bone marrow is on vacation, so these transfusions really, truly are mission-critical in every sense of the word. Which means the people who give blood are making a lot of stuff possible for me that would otherwise be out of reach and beyond hope. I have a relatively normal life because of donated blood, and every time I sit down to get transfused I think about how awesome it was for someone to take time out of their life to get a needle in their arm. I'm lucky and grateful.
If you're interested, contact the American Red Cross at GiveLife
1 comment:
Your PSA was heartfelt and something I can completely agree with. I have donated blood for close to 2 decades now (started in high school), and despite never having needed it myself, I try to go as often as I am allowed. I have also tried to get other people to donate, and when they claim they can't handle needles, sometimes I just want to smack them upside the head to knock some sense into them. Not being overly fond of needles myself, I still know that this is one of the best things that people can do to help others. I also know that there is a critical shortage of blood (at least here in Michigan) so please, people, don't be a needle wimp - just go and donate blood! Since my blood is HIV- CMV- and Hepatitis C-, as well as being A-, the next time I am eligible to donate I am going to try a new thing called Trima, which will supposedly let me donate every two weeks.
As I've been enjoying reading your blog for quite some time, I would like to think that you might possibly benefit from this.
Take care, and as we say in my family - "Keep your chins up!"
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