measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, I guess that's over for a while... ... no blood donations for me for a while. I went to donate red cells today, and my hematocrit was 32%. You need at least a 38% to donate. What this means is that of my blood count, only 32% are red blood cells. Simple English? I'm anemic. Enough that my dad told me I'd better go get a complete blood count test done, and that it was a good thing I wasn't home in Montana, because with that level of anemia in that elevation, I'd be passing out. Since I'm at sea level, I'm just feeling fatigued. The interesting thing is, I have felt very tired for MONTHS. I mean... if you read through my journal, you see mentions everywhere of me not being able to concentrate, of needing more coffee, etc. This was all from feeling tired. Not sleepy tired-- fatigued. Not having the energy to walk up two flights of stairs, even-- Erich watched me struggle with that yesterday at his apartment. I assumed I just wasn't sleeping well. But my dad told me that since I was giving platelets, they might not have been as concerned with my hematocrit. I was going to be getting the red blood cells back, anyway. So needless to say, I will be calling the doctor tomorrow. Might as well go and get this checked ASAP. Because if it's easily fixable (such as an iron deficiency), I would rather just get rid of the problem. A now enlightened... but still fatigued... --Mel. 11:07 p.m. - 28 January 2002 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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