Blood Transfusion Fear Put To Bed

After 3 admissions my body was tired and sadly my iron levels dipped.
Being Thalassemic Trait is bad enough as I'm always slightly anaemic in general, but whilst having chemotherapy I knew at some point my iron levels would dip so low that I'd need a blood transfusion.

Naturally I was terrified, I didn't know how a bloody blood transfusion really worked and I was worried about the process when really, it was a 6 hour piece of piss. I was tired, wow extremely tired and boy did the transfusion give me the burst of energy I was craving.

I was sat in the unit alone at first, a bald bag of nerves, the nurse kept telling me to relax but I couldn't. The thought of someone else's blood entering my arm, the thought of having a bad reaction, it pulled on my anxiety strings and it was starting to show. The nurses at North Mids chemo unit were amazing, they spotted it and made sure I relaxed. We chatted and they brought me a sandwich,  2 gentlemen then came in the room and was hooked up to have their chemo. 

Having people in the room naturally calmed my nerves because as many of you know, I'm the worlds biggest chatter box. We all started chatting away and immediately clicked. We were all talking and laughing so loud that the unit manager had to tell us to keep it down, it was funny because we all felt like the naughty school kids. All of us with cancer. All of us part of this club. Why should we be quite, we're living life on the edge, we have cancer, we will not be quite. A natural understanding and funny little bond immediately takes place when you meet another person with cancer. You all have the same look and fear in each others eyes and you all have this sense of 'life's too short, do and say what you want'. But out of respect for the nurses we did turn it down a notch.

One of the guys sitting having chemo had a friend that accompanied him, he looked like Michael Caine.... I kid you not, I thought it was him so much so that I was google imaging just to check if he was ...he wasn't. 
The other guy sat next to me, Uncle Norman who I'd later call, was a spitting image of one of my actual uncles.
My uncle who I'd once been close with but somehow drifted with after I was diagnosed.
Why does that happen? 'Drifters' I like to call them. Once there.... now not.

Im not sure if its the cancer that scared him away or if it was something else? His brother Ken, my Uncle who I really miss, was diagnosed with Leukaemia over 30 years ago. Chemotherapy back then was different, it was so harsh and treatment wasn't very individually tailored, and sadly from the age of 25, after 11 year battle he passed away at 36.
Maybe it was that. The thought that he'd be losing another family member.  Im not going to lie, when I was initially told I would have to have chemo, my Uncle Ken popped in my head. Was I going to die, was I going to be hooked up to lots of machines? Will I be bed bound?

Hours passed, the conversation touched on politics, religion, homophobia, islamaphobia, diet, cancer... and before we knew it 6 hours later Norman had become Uncle Norm and we were the only ones left in the unit. Transfusion was done. There was nothing to have feared, I knew that just like the conversations with these familiar strangers, this was helping me and boy did I feel like a new person  a few days later. I went home that day feeling very mentally drained but very positive. 

I filmed the whole process on Instagram stories and naturally saved it to create a short film if you like just click on the link below to watch my reactions. Enjoy and don't be scared. Its saving your life.
Thank you to each and every person who donated and continue to donate blood. You are true heroes.

Comments

  1. WHAT A GREAT MIRACLE THAT I HAVE EVER SEE IN MY LIFE. My names are Robert Mary
    I’m a citizen of United Kingdom, My younger sister was Sicking of
    breast cancer and her name is Robert Jane, I and my family have taking
    her to all kind of hospital in UK still yet no good result. I decided
    to go to the internet and search for cancer cure so that was how I
    find a lady called Sarah peter she was testifies to the world about
    the goodness of a herbal man who has the root and half to cure all
    kind of disease and the herbal email was there. So I decided to
    contact the herbal man for my younger sister help to cure her breast
    cancer. I contacted him and told him my problem he told me that I
    should not worry that my sister cancer will be cure, he told me that
    there is a medicine that he is going to give me that I will cook it
    and give it to my sister to drink for one week, so I ask how can I
    receive the cure that I am in UK, he told me
    That I will pay for the delivery service. The courier service can
    transport it to me so he told me the amount I will pay, so my dad paid
    for the delivery fee. two days later I receive the cure from the
    courier service so I used it as the herbal man instructed me to,
    before the week complete my sister cancer was healed and it was like a
    dream to me not knowing that it was physical I and my family were very
    happy about the miracle of Doctor so my dad wanted to pay him 5
    million us dollars the herbal man did not accept the offer from my dad,but I don't know why he did not accept the offer,he only said
    I should tell the world about him and his miracle he perform so am now
    here to tell the world about him if you or your relative is having any
    kind of disease that you can't get from the hospital please contact
    Dr.ogididanspelltemple@gmail.com or WhatsApp him +2347067393105, website:> drogididherbalhome.wordpress.com message him on instragram dr.ogididan for the cure, he will help you out
    with any problems you have.To get more information you can message me via email robertmary8947@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

The Latest on Instagram

Popular posts from this blog

5 Tips For Returning To Work After Treatment

How I Love My New Style After Cancer Diagnosis

We've Moved!