Learning to read!

 Learning to read is a big task. I suppose that's why it is best to do it while one is young and has a bright young mind to absorb the details and the nuances involved in turning ink blotches on a page into coherent thoughts to be transferred to the brain. It's kind of like digitizing old photos. You need a sensory device (camera) to record the ink blotches (letters, photos) and a powerful processor to convert the images into strings of impulses that can later be sorted by processing them in reverse to extract their meaning and reconstruct the image. 

Now what is that all about? It occurred to me that part of this experience of living with a new paradigm is like learning a new language and how to read it. Today, I have an appointment for a blood draw. The purpose of the blood draw is to tell my medical team how my body is responding to the recent chemotherapy I had. In the meantime, though, I have discovered that my body can tell me a lot about what is going on without doing laboratory tests. As I learn to "read" my day to day experience, for example, I can tell with some certainty that this morning's blood draw will indicate I need a transfusion of red blood cells. I can feel that my brain is starving for oxygen, by reading the symptoms: light-headedness, unsteadiness on my feet, disappearing areas of my visual field after the most minor exertion. 

In addition, based on my experience with such symptoms during my first hospital stay, I'll lay you a dollar to a doughnut that I will also need a platelet transfusion. And so, even in my dotage, I am "learning to read." This is encouraging to me. I ain't no spring chicken, but I am learning to read a new language that will allow me to operate more reasonably in this brave new world I have entered. 

I took  a break from writing this post to go to the medical center for the blood draw, but there were complications.  We arrived at the nurse treatment center on time and Jennifer, who is an RN we are getting to know because she has taken care of me before, laid out all the things she would need for drawing my blood from my PICC Line. Unfortunately, she could not extract any blood. This has happened before. It seems that the end of the PICC Line that is in my vein will sometimes begin to have some fibrin collect on it.  When it does, it can form a little "trap door" arrangement. When the nurse inserts a syringe and pumps saline solution into the PICC Line, it flows through into my vein easily. But when he or she attempts to draw blood back out, the little "trap door" is sucked into the end of the tube and prevents blood flow. That's exactly what happened this morning. 

Fortunately, there is a pretty easy solution to the trap door problem. Jennifer injected an enzyme into the PICC Line that essentially dissolves the trap door. It takes about two hours to work, so home we went. When we returned two hours later the PICC Line provided plenty of blood for my lab tests. I'm still waiting for the results...but reading between the (PICC) lines, I can tell you I will need a transfusion. No, really! Trust me; I'm a doctor!!