Saturday, December 18, 2010

Christmas Blood Transfusion

So, I made it home to Newfoundland safe and sound. I was delayed all the way down and my luggage didn't show up until two days later but I made it! However, I guess all the travelling and stress did get to me because today I was in so much pain I had to go in to the hospital for a blood transfusion. I've been having pain in my hip for the past few days now so I decided to go in and get it checked out. They are use to seeing me at the Stephenville hospital so it was only about 4 hours and I had my 4 units of fresh frozen plasma and some pain medication. I am home resting now and praying that I will only need those four units and not have to go in for more. I kept my IV in just in case but I hope I will not have to use it.
I feel much more comfortable with my doctors and nurses in Calgary but I have to say the nurses here in Stephenville are the nicest people in the world. Hopefully I can spend the rest of my trip eating chocolate and opening gifts! We'll see how it goes in the morning!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Christmas Countdown

So, yesterday I went to the dentist to get a crown put it, it seemed to go off without a hitch so I am happy about that! I also got to spend the night at my dads house, we decorated the tree had a delicious supper and Dad gave me a GPS system for my car which I am so excited about because I am the worst at finding my way around the city!
There are only four days left until I go to Newfoundland for Christmas. I am absolutely positively so excited but at the same time I am very nervous, I really don't want to end up in the hospital especially in Stephenville because I don't have my Hematology team there.
I am eating healthy, taking lots of vitamins and getting lots of rest in an effort to keep myself healthy! In the meantime I am running around trying to get all of my shopping done. No matter how much I buy I still feel like I need to do more shopping! I don't care what I get for Christmas as long as I stay healthy until at least January 7th!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

World AIDS Day

So, today is world AIDS day! I think for most people it might not mean anything. For those in the Hemophilia Community world AIDS day brings up horrible memories. For me, I remember a family I met when I was living in Halifax, NS. The family that I had the pleasure of meeting had two sons that had severe factor 8 hemophilia. Both sons contracted the HIV virus through the tainted blood in the 1980's. The family was so devastated that they told everyone the boys died from severe bleeds when in fact it was AIDS. They didn't want people to know the truth. Sadly, for a lot of Hemophiliac families this story is very similar to their own. You see in the 1980's almost an entire generation of Hemophiliacs were injected with tainted products containing the HIV and Hepatitis C virus. World AIDS day makes me think of all the people we've lost to this horrible disease and it reminds me that the Hemophilia community is still at risk. Until all Hemophiliacs have a recombinant factor that contains no human blood product what so ever we are still at risk.