Tuesday, April 01, 2008

My Recent (and continuing) Illness

I have been tired for a while but at the beginning of March it was really bad. I began to be pale and dizzy some and then I began to be yellow and almost non-functional. So, March 10 after school I went to urgent care and they admitted me because my hemoglobin level was at 5.5 and is supposed to be between 12-13. They were going to do a blood transfusion but found that I have hemolytic anemia which means that my body is still making red blood cells but my white blood cells are killing them so fast they can't accumulate. I was in the hospital for 1 week being treated with IV prednisone trying to suppress my white blood cells. (They don't know what is causing this) After a week my level went to 6.7 and they let me go home and rest but not work, which I really couldn't anyway. Since being at home, I have been on oral prednisone 80mg per day (a lot!) and after 3 days my levels still didn't go up. So, last week I had to go to the hospital Mon-Thu for a 3 hour IV treatment of hemoglobulin to try to suppress my white blood cells more. Well, I had a blood draw yesterday and my hemoglobin is still at 6.7! ugh! Now, I have an appointment on Friday with the hematologist that my doctor has been in contact with for a treatment with a new chemo-drug (not a full-chemo treatment) that will wipe out all of my bad white blood cells instead of the old drugs which would wipe out ALL of your bad white blood cells. Hopefully this will allow my body to begin to accumulate and keep the red blood cells that it is making. In a nutshell, that is it. I am doing better than I was but not great. This blood disorder with the prednisone is quite a combo of 'side effects'. Please continue to pray that they will figure out exactly what is causing this to occur, whether autoimmune disease or virus or whatever, but 50% of these cases they never figure out what is causing it. Lord TRULY only knows!

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