As I drive back to my suburb, I can’t stay off my phone long enough to concentrate on driving. I had to leave work at noon today and can’t shake that nagging feeling that I forgot to do something. Since around 10 AM, I have been on the phone with my doctor, my boyfriend, my parents, my doctor, my parents, my boyfriend…then in my boss’s office explaining that the blood work I had done the day before yielded some strange results and that my doctor was, therefore, making me check in to the hospital. Apparently, my platelet count was around 2,000 (normal is 150,000-400,000) and my white blood cell count was low as well, so they called and told me to leave work and report to the hospital immediately.
The whole time, I’m thinking that the hospital stay is unnecessary, because I feel pretty much normal. Apart from the weird bruising/bleeding symptoms I had been experiencing that week, I felt like myself. I’ll discuss said weird bruising/bleeding symptoms later, as they’re complicated and…some of them a little personal (eew)…but, again, I’ll address that later.
I had mentioned to my Mom what was going on and she made an appointment for me with my PCP for that Thursday afternoon. (Yes, I’m 24 years-old and have been making my own appointments for a while now, but I think she knew I wouldn’t go otherwise. My Mom = Supermom. One of her superpowers is knowing when to step in and take action and when to leave my life to me. Good call on this one, Mom.) I wasn’t planning on going to the doctor because, really, it’s just a pain to leave work early and I honestly figured these symptoms would go away in a couple of days. Things at work were too crazy for sudden health issues: I was making preparations to take over a co-worker’s accounts while she took maternity leave. She was rapidly approaching her due date and I needed to be there as much as possible. However, when I told her about my symptoms, she urged me to keep the appointment. Thank goodness she did, because I guess things were more serious than I thought.
Oh, and today’s date: Friday the 13th. Naturally.
