yesterday i went to an urgent care clinic since i was having a 3 day bout of severe nausea and vomiting. i was seen by 2 hysterical women (yes; i am a woman too) who said i needed to be seen immediately in the e.r., have a red blood cell transusion, and be admitted to the hospital. they had made all the phone calls to arrange this. well, as i knew, the e.r. doc was the only rationale person i met in this experience. he gave me an iv of zofran (an anti nausea drug) and 200cc of normal saline. i was back to normal. same old self. admit to hospital for a transfusion? crazy making. by the way, the 2 hysterical women were a physician’s assistant and an md.
yes, i do have anemia. not an emergency. and yes today i saw my hem/onc specialist who is monitoring my anemia. he didn’t want to hear about the crazy ladies. he simply scheduled me for another transfusion in a week, as had already been planned. (docs protect each other, no matter how wrong they are) a dangerous practice.
by the way, the hem/onc specialist says he is seeing more people my age with anemia. the kind that in which bone marrow is no longer making enough red blood cells. it is his theory that this is due to environmental toxins that we were exposed to in our childhood, and possible caused a change in a chromosome. treatment? red blood cell transusions, from some wonderful donor.