Little to say today, I’m dead tired and tremendously lacking in sleep. I spent the whole of yesterday up until an hour ago with my sister and my mother in the hospital because my sister has dengue.
Today she seems okay. OK blood pressure, OK blood platelets. She’s not eating much, if at all, so she’s hooked on dextrose 24/7. Her gums are bleeding a bit and her lips and face are dry, poor dear. She’s developing rashes, but the doctor says that’s good because it means she’ll bleed less. But she can walk, she can talk, she can go to the loo alone and she’s still hasn’t lost her punk. Still my feisty sister. That’s a good sign.
Last night was scary, though, because the doctor said that her platelets were dangerously low, and if ever it went below 100, that we might have to give her blood transfusion. To nurses, doctors, med students, if there are any incorrect terms here, please forgive me, ako ay hamak na ComSci grad lang (I am only a ComSci grad).
Fortunately, she’s an O, the most common blood type around. I’m an O, too, and so are most of my relatives. The doctor said to keep at least two donors on standby, just in case. Since I was her watcher, I was to be the first donor. Which explains why I had a sleepless night.
I was scared. Of donating blood. Or, maybe not really of the donating process itself. But more of the gigantic needles to be inserted in my vein, the vein searching and vein pricking, and the *extracting* of precious platelets from my vein. Ewwwrrrgguuhhhhrrrreeewwwwggghhh… That’s the inhuman sound emanating from my vocal chords at the thought of my veins being exposed and being pricked, pried open, bulldozed, *invaded* by a gigantic needle.
Ewwwrrrgguuhhhhrrrreeewwwwggghhh!!!
Every four hours, the nurse took a blood sample from my sister to check on the amount of her platelets. Every four hours my body would start to tingle, my tummy would start to drop, my heart would start to race, and my head would start to swim, and I would feel faint.
Ewwwrrrgguuhhhhrrrreeewwwwggghhh!!!
Fortunately, every 30 minutes after four hours, the nurse would say her blood pressure’s ok and her platelets are still above 100. No need for blood transfusion yet. So every 30 minutes after four hours when the results come in, my heart returns back to its cage, slowly, if a bit erratically. But it never quite feels at ease, because of that awful word. “Yet.” It means that there’s no need for blood transusion NOW. But MAYBE LATER. So my eyes never quite close fully and I never get quite unconscious.
So today I went home for a few hours, to catch up on my sleep. I will go back to the hospital later tonight, but for now I would like to be away from all that edginess and unease. I don’t think I can ever sleep in a hospital knowing that I will be giving a bagful of blood.
Ewwwrrrgguuhhhhrrrreeewwwwggghhh!!!
Please pray my sister gets well soon. Please pray her blood pressure stays normal. Please pray her blood platelets never go below 100. And please pray she’ll stay healthy and strong and she won’t need any blood transfusion. Because God knows, if she does, her older sister might not be that strong at all.
i had dengue before, too, back in 2nd year. me and my bro got it at the same time but he got it worse than me. fortunately none of us needed blood transfusion.
i hope liss is gonna be fine, fli, both for her sake and yours. i feel your squeamishness, as you know, what happened in my physical exam. š
my sister just came out from the hospital for dengue. she was there for 7 days, her platelet count went down to 66 (normal is 150-450). i panicked and resorted to herbal treatment with the permission of the doc. pinainom lang namin ng liquid ng boiled tawatawa every hour. the following day, her platelet count went up to 136 then to 200. gumaling kaagad sya.
try it. it’s very effective.
If only your sister has B+ type of blood, then you can call me sana. Actually I am a regular blood donor of REDCROSS. Or you can even ask me even for the DONOR card, kasi madaling makakuha ng dugo sa REDCROSS for free, if you have the donor card.
alan, thanks for the tip.
now if only i could figure out what tawa-tawa is and where to get it…
ka webspy, thanks for the offer. š
fortunately, i also have a few relatives who are red cross donors.
it seems i am SAVED!
š
Hope your sister’s okay.