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Why having a low red blood cell count stinks!

I have to say I never really understood much about anemia before I had this illness. I just thought it was something you got if you were a vegetarian who didn’t manage your iron intake… well how wrong I was. It can be a symptom of an iron deficient diet or it can be a symptom of internal bleeding or it can even be a sign that you have a blood cancer… like me. The thing that stinks is that with anemia your blood isn’t carrying enough oxygen so you fatigue easily. A low red blood cell count is a form of anemia; chemo destroys some of your good red blood cells and can impede your body’s ability to create new red blood cells.  My red blood cell count was low last week prior to chemo, but not enough to warrant a transfusion.

As of today, I have no idea what the count is, but I am severly fatigued. I have been for the last two days actually. Just standing up makes me dizzy, actually walking somewhere, like the kitchen, or the bathroom, requires a rest. Today I went into work to pick up an antenna for my NextG card, and just standing and trying to talk to my co-workers made me need to sit down; it also made me so short of breath I had trouble talking, and it made me break out in a sweat. I have honestly never experienced anything like this. My ability to exercise is now pretty much non-existent, but I should improve. I’ll have an extra week between this round of chemo and the next, so my body should have a chance to make some blood that doesn’t get destroyed… I hope this happens really soon, because I am hating this. Rolling over in bed is making me breathe heavy, that is wrong. It is so weird to be so close to the end of this, and still two more rounds of this nasty treatment away. It’s strange to hate something so much and be so indebted and grateful to it at the same time, and I really HATE chemo, but I really, really love what it’s done for my tumor.

All in all, cancer stinks, but I’ve really gotten to learn a lot about my body and how it works, and a lot about what the word tired means; all things said though, I can’t really recommend it as a learning tool :) .

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 3:38 am and is filed under J's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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