Week 47 – more platelets required

This week involved a little surprise!  I accidentally chopped a chunk out of the end of my index figure and the bleeding would not stop!  A pressure bandage helped but after two days my finger was still bleeding.  And to make matters worse during a gym session at the Epworth rehab program I managed to scrape my shin and start another bleed.  With a low platelet count my blood would not clot so the bleeding contimued.

So during the weekly blood tests at Peter Mac my clinical nurse, Ming suggested that a top up of platelets was required to address the issue.  This process is much quicker than a blood transfusion but still takes a few hours.  This was not a problem as I had allowed the day for blood tests and other top ups if needed.  The extra platelets had an immediate impact on the bleeding.

My blood results from yesterday were encouraging:

Haemoglobin – 88

Wcc 4.3

Platelets – 27 (soon to be 35 plus after the top up)

Neutrophils – 2.9

Creatinine – 86

Ming confirmed that I still need to be patient while my bone marrow rebuilds.  He said this will take some time which could be months but it will slowly recover,  The key indicator will be a gradual increase in the platelet count.

Apart from the bleeding issues I am feeling well and although still suffering from fatigue when keeping a little too busy things are going well.

Catch ups last week included:

Duncan McFarlane (an old uni friend who now lectures in Cambridge but is in Melbourne establishing a new Engineering course for Melb. Uni).

 

We made a two day trip to Newcastle to meet up with business colleagues on an aged care development project we are involved with.

 

 

 

Michael and Kate McConachy our business partners from  Kununurra were in Melbourne for a few days.  We made time to go over our businesses and plan a few things for next year.  Mike and Kate do a fantastic job running  a business that now employs 140 people.

 

 

 

 

Ali Reid from  Wagga dropped in for  great catch up (including dropping off a jigsaw puzzle from here sister Claire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claire arrived in Melbourne after an epic drive across the Nullabor with some friends.  Claire now works from Melbourne for Shell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We caught up with Jan’s uncle David and friend Rosa for dinner and saw James Morrision and Kate Ceberano in concert – a truely lovely experience.  James’ two sons play with him making it even more special.