labellementeuse | (no subject)

I don't think this anecdote is going to translate very well from real life, but

thinkaholic insisted that I post it to allow everyone to mock me as appropriate. So.

I was at the emergency room tonight (not an actual emergency; I decided to go about five hours earlier, which is about how urgent it was. There was this thing with a purpura.) After a blood test:

Nurse: So, blood test! We're probably going to put a line in your arm in case we want to put you on a drip!
Me: Uh, what?
Nurse: Well, we might need to!
Me (thinking, but hey, I already know what you're going to do, you're going to put me back on 40mg of prednisone per day): Um, sure.
Nurse: *prods* Hmm, I can see all your old puncture marks! How often do you have blood tests?
Me: More than someone without ITP, less than someone with an actually serious blood disease. Like, duh.
Nurse: Well, I can't find a vein, so we'll just take blood!
Me: Oh good.

and quite a lot of waiting, I get a low-ish platelet count (24) so they drag me off to an an oservation ward and sit me on a bed (with Lucy and Mike, who, for the record, are totally saintlike and picked me up and dropped me off and waited with me for hours and generally went above and beyond the call of friendship.) Blah, blah, interns see me, a doctor sees me, half a dozen nurses see me, there is general chat about my recent history with ITP; every time a new doctor comes in I have to go through the whole thing again. (It's totally down to a fine art, go on, ask me about it.) Finally a doctor comes in and asks me about the dosages I've been on and that kind of thing. I tell her, she leaves. About five minutes later she sticks her head back in.

Doc: Were they planning on taking out your spleen at all?
Me (hearing "planning on taking out your spleen") Uh, WHAT? :O
Lucy & Mike: *pee themselves laughing at me, seriously, there are sick people around and they're busting a gut, honestly*
Me: Um, are *you* planning on doing it?
Doc: No, were *they* planning on doing it?
Me: No! Oh my god! (Actually, I am pretty well aware that a spleenectomy is the possible nect step but, gah, you don;t just *surprise* a person like that.)
Doc: Okay then, we're going to put you on 40mg of prednisone and give you a month's prescription of same, plus an appointment with your doctor.
Me: What a surprise.

So, adventures in land of Christchurch Hospital Emergency Room successfully and predictably navigated. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my stash of 2.5mg tablets, though... Save them until such time as they become useful, I guess, since I'd have to take sixteen of them to get my appropriate daily dosage. Speaking of, apparently there's a whole community devoted to ranting about prednisone,

deathtopred; all I can say is, wow, LJ, you sure have a lot of time on your hands. (Seriously, it's probably really useful for trying to manage some of pred's side effects.)

Aaaaaand speaking of side effects, now I know why I've been so goddamned bitchy lately; going back up to 40 will probably make me bright and cheery and ridiculously energetic again, hooray!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

*hugs* wish you'd called me or told me - i'd have come in!

*hugsback* As if, honey. :) The last thing you need to be doing is spending more time in hospital (and it was kind of an impromptu thing anyway. :P) Will we be seeing you this evening? We're having a pork roast.

I'm not laughing at you... I'm just laughing... at the situation. Yes.

And at the random way the doctor must have said it. Because, um, not the most tactful way of suggesting taking out your spleen.

I think my face must have been all o.O because Lucy and Mike seriously laughed for about half an hour. :P It was pretty funny at the time, actually.