Excitement

It certainly has been an exciting week, though maybe not for the right reasons! Last week, I went to see the GP because I was getting very tired and drained, and really struggling with the basics of life. (Yes, it had been building up for a while and I should have gone sooner, but I knew I needed a blood test and I have an insane fear of needles, and of hospitals in general, so I told myself I would just get over it. Uh, no!)

The GP was certain that I was anaemic so sent me off for a routine blood test to confirm. It took a few days to get the appointment, and the test was done on Monday afternoon. Monday evening just before 11pm the on-call doctor at the hospital rang me up to say he had an ambulance on stand-by ready to take me in for an emergency blood transfusion, as my haemoglobin(?) levels were so dangerously low. He seemed slightly susprised that I was actually alive!

Once he realised I was still functioning in the basics (ie breathing and being able to walk around the house, albeit slowly), he stood this down and referred back to my GP. So, 11 blood samples given, 2 units of red blood cells received, James' hand being squeezed until he nearly needed some new blood, several rounds of the Alphabet Game and an unexpected overnight stay in the Royal Berks Hospital later, I am now officially alive again!

Came home with this rather fetching green bag, the obligatory identifier wristband and three months' worth of iron tablets. Once I'm properly back on my feet, it will no doubt be more needles and more hospitals as we get to the bottom of how I became anaemic in the first place and try to put that right.

But for now, the only needles I am going anywhere near are knitting ones!

It's an indicator of how ill I had become that this is my first Blip of September, even though the weather has been so great and I should have been outside enjoying it! You don't realise these things until you start to get better...