terrible Tues

February 8, 2011 at 9:17pmPeter was called in for a few extra hours - good news as he's been shorted on hours for the last several weeks.
He left for work - I received a call from the doctor's office.
Keep in mind, I'm not yet supposed to drive.
They needed me to come in.  Now.
Because my hemoglobin levels are so low, they were trying to get me onto the surgical schedule as soon as possible, but if I were unable to get to the office today, surgery would have to be pushed back to the end of February and perhaps early March.
So I start making phone calls.  Mum - is in town with her Geri-Actors group.  Darn it. Sis - is out on calls. Darn it.
Ok, I call Peter's work.  It is almost 2:30 at this point.  Luckily, he was already in the parking lot.  He had to drive all the way back home, get me, drive me to to the doctor's office in town, then bring me back home and drive back to work.  Ugh.  I felt awful making him do that, but had no other choice.
All this to pay the doctor's percentage of the surgery so they could get me on the schedule.
So far not so bad, right?  Well, we're not quite done yet.
Surgery is scheduled for February 15th.  Pre-op at the hospital is February 11th.  And when the office manager noticed my hemoglobin levels she scheduled another pre-op at the doctor's office for February 10th.  Why?  Because if my hemoglobin level slips at all... I won't be going in for pre-op on the 11th, because I'll already be there startingl on the 10th for another round of transfusions and another several day long hospital stay while I play vampire.  Damnit.
5 units thus far since October.  Now I'm looking at a minimum of 3 more.
I -really- don't want to have to have more transfusions if I can avoid it.
So, since Peter had to rush back to work, I begged Mum to take me back to town to do some iron-intensive grocery shopping.  Came home with clams, shrimp, several cuts of beef, a bunch of green leafy vegetables and all those things I've been eating since childhood that are supposed to make the iron more available to my system.
I'm already sick of eating.  But the alternative keeps me going.

I missed the best part.  Or the worst part, depending on how one looks at it.  All this time the doctor has been saying "ablation" "ablation" "ablation"... and somehow I didn't think through the procedure.  When I was in for scheduling, the procedure is actually a d&c, hysteroscopy & ablation.  I've had d&c's before - every time I've been curled in the fetal position for 2-3 days after.

Right now I just have to trust the doctor... that she knows what is best and that she is confident in the success of the procedure.  And I do.  But that doesn't stop me from being terrified.

This is our last option.  The last one.  It has to work.

Time to drink my vanilla chai (15% DV Iron per serving)...  I guess the good news is that I don't have to worry about getting too much iron.

So.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring?