“I’ll just go order those blood tests now, if you’ll please meet me out front.”
I had no idea what those blood tests would really reveal, and how hard my life was about to get.
In 2019, I needed a physical to run cross country for OHS, but my physical with my normal doctor wasn’t scheduled until October and I needed one by September. I made an appointment with a different provider. Thank god I did.
I wanted to get on some sort of contraceptive pill, and one of the risks was blood clots. Since I am adopted and don’t know my family history, I decided to have a blood test drawn to see if I had the clotting disorder. I was feeling exhausted and just overall drained and I was getting sick a lot during the summer. It seemed as though the lymph nodes in my neck were constantly swollen.
I am not usually afraid of needles, but over the course of the next few months I would be tested once a week to see if the medicine was working. Because of that, if I had any fear of needles, it was long gone by the end of this ordeal. A normal person’s hemoglobin numbers are anywhere from 20-113. When I first got tested I was at an 11. I was put on sulfurous phosphate, and monitored. I went about my life, running, going to school, and still getting sick. After a while, I got extremely sick and I was dizzy. We went to the healthcare center on main street and discovered some startling news. My blood pressure was so dangerously low that my doctor was thinking about referring me to the SUNY Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital ER in Syracuse.
I left the clinic and went home. My mom had to work, so I was left with the TV, water and some snacks. As I watched Teen Wolf and Twilight I dozed. Eventually, she came home and told me that she didn’t want to wait until I get worse to go to the ER. It was a Friday, and she said it’s hard to get into the ER on the weekends because no tests or imaging could be done until the following Monday. I packed my overnight bag, water bottle and snacks and headed into the car. As we drove the gorgeous route to Syracuse, my sister called me. We hadn’t really gotten along very well, but as she voiced how concerned she was for me I realized that life is too short to not tell someone how you feel about them. I told her that I loved her and I’d be okay and then we hung up.
We got to Syracuse around 5 p.m. and went into the ER waiting room. We waited and waited. 6 p.m. passed and then 8 p.m. It was about 9:30 p.m. before I even got a room. A blood pressure cuff was put on my arm that would constrict every 15 minutes or so. Blood was drawn. My temperature was taken. Then, another long period of waiting occurred. The results of my lab finally came back. My numbers had dropped from a 9 to a 7. My options were an infusion so that I’d feel better quicker, or adjust my dosage of my medication. The medicine had made me extremely sick to my stomach, so I chose the infusion. It was 12 a.m. when they finally hooked up my infusion bag, and 3 a.m. by the time it was done and I was able to go home.
Within a week I was able to run again, and within 2 weeks I felt so much better. I learned that giving up isn’t an option. If giving up was, I don’t think that I would’ve found the solution to my problems that were stemming from anemia. Asking for second or even third opinions is necessary in order to fully understand what is happening. Sometimes when it comes to health, I can be finicky. I think that I don’t need to go to the doctor because it’ll go away on its own. I am so glad that I went to the doctor and finally was able to put an end to this whole fiasco.
Doctors are so very important and it’s also important to realize that it takes courage to go and fix and health issue. If I hadn’t gotten a blood test I would never had known that anemia was the source for my fatigue and constant sickness. I encourage all girls in high school to get tested because once I started my treatment I felt so much better than I had in months.