Friday 25^th October 2019

My Exchange blood transfusion

So this morning I have met the Sickle Cell Nurse, the lady who will be performing the procedure, and the lady who is classed as the runner who will pick up bags of blood as they are needed. I also met the Haematology team of doctors.

Everything was explained to me and I understood that I was being given between 8 to 10 units of blood dependent on the weight of each unit. Your weight and height determined the amount of blood that would be administered to you in total. The machine was set up and we were ready go after I read the information that I had been given and had signed the consent form.

The entire procedure felt very regimental as the lady cross reference the bags of blood with the runner as she brought the bags to be checked. “Laurel Brumant, hospital number, date of birth, blood group, expiry date, date of donation”. This was repeated and cross checked by both ladies, as each blood bag was delivered and put up to hang on the machine, ready for infusion.

I only ended up needing 8 units of blood as the bags were extremely large and the volume of 10 units would have been too much for me. All In all the entire procedure took about two and a half hours and I was told to lie on the bed for at least an hour after the procedure. The doctor also came to remove the line, took a blood sample, and told me that I should lie down for another hour. I was also informed that once the blood results were received and they were okay I could go home.

I lay down for a couple of hours and felt quite well within myself, just a little drained. I decided that I would go and get myself sorted out and have a quick freshen up as I waited for the blood results to come back.

Then it happened, in fact I am not quite sure what happened as it is all now a bit of a daze.

My head started spinning and everything went blurry and knew that I was going to pass out. There was a chair in the corner and I slowly dragged myself over to it and closed my eyes. I felt as if I was out of it for a while and I knew that I needed to try and pull the emergency cord which was across from where I was slouched. I did this very slowly everything still feeling as if it were a blur and after what seemed like forever I could hear a nurses voice calling out if I was okay but I was unable to answer.

I could not answer and I could not move, it was almost as if I froze. Eventually I felt as if I were able to unlock the door and let the nurse in. I felt dazed and confused, what had actually just happened to me?

The nurse helped me to my bed and made me lie down, my head was thumping and I felt unable to talk fluently as a doctor came to examine me and find out my account of what had happened. I found out that my blood results were all over the place and the results were all really low. Low white blood count, low platelet count, low Hemoglobin, low Neutrophils.

I knew at that moment that I would not be going home.

Laurel

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