More blood!

Figured when they gave me two units of whole blood last month (7/17/08) that would be an annual event. I had chemo 7/24/08, then had a bye week 7/31/08 and started another round of chemo (session 3A) on 8/7/08.

When I showed up at 9 a.m. yesterday, expecting part 3B of chemo, the nurses had several tries at finding a working vein. After wrapping both my arms in warm blankets for 15 minutes, my chemo nurse, Terri, got an IV in my right inside wrist.

About noon, Dawn, my other chemo nurse, informed me that the labs had come back on my blood work. My blood count was down again, and I was getting two units of whole blood and 4 grams of magnesium rather than chemo. So she had to collect another vial of blood for typing and send it down to the lab.

When you get a unit of blood, two nurses have to verify in writing that you are who is supposed to get the blood. Paperwork has to be signed and vitals have to be monitored throughout the 2-hour process to put one unit into one’s body. Last time I got two units of A negative, but yesterday I got two units of A positive. I’m A positive so I can get both A positive and negative as well as O. Four grams of magnesium takes about 1 ½ hours to get.

Your body needs magnesium in order to perform a variety of functions, from energy, enzyme, and hormone production, to bone, muscle, and neurological health. I’ve been getting magnesium by IV pretty routinely lately. I left Mercy at 8:30 p.m. along with my two nurses, leaving the cleaning crew to its work. Traffic in Baltimore was clear but it was still 9:30 p.m. before I got home. Long day.

But I’m pretty perky today. Having oxygen will do that for a person.

Terri says blood transfusions are routine for someone who has been on chemo nearly non-stop for almost two years. Chemo is cumulative, damaging my bone marrow and interfering with my body’s ability to manufacture blood. The primary function of red blood cells is to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. Hemoglobin is an important protein in the red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of our body. The primary function of white blood cells is to fight infection. So getting transfused, while it delays getting chemo, helps in the long run.

And I’m in this for the long run.