Series of Unfortunate Events--Chapter 6: Blood Transfusion?

 So the entire first day I was at the University of Iowa hospital I was actually getting worse and worse because we had no answers.  Because of my ongoing GI issues, they were only allowing me to have liquids, so it had been over 5 days since I had eaten anything substantial meal!

That first night in the hospital is completely a blur.  I honestly thought I was going to die before they figured out what was wrong!  What I do remember was that I had a RAGING fever of 104 degrees, and I was practically hallucinating.  It was terrifying.  They packed me in ice and I was still so uncomfortable that I could not get any sleep.  My breathing was extremely labored because my hemoglobin level was so low and I was so weak, so breathing was very taxing—almost like I couldn’t catch my breath. 

It was also at this point in the night that they decided to go ahead and transfuse me in my “sleep”—ha! (I wasn’t getting any sleep).  Because my hemoglobin level was now at 5, there were no questions about it.  It appeared that this was our only option, so even though it was slightly scary, they got me all hooked up and all systems were go.  It was kinda weird seeing someone else’s blood go in me, but if it would make me feel better, I was ALL for it!  This all happened around 10:00 at night, and it was only supposed to take a little while, so I was just supposed to rest.  Riiiiight. 

Not 10 minutes later, my entire team of doctors came running into my room, which really alarmed my mom and I because we never saw them all together.  They stopped my transfusion immediately and explained to us that they had found some interesting things in my blood work from that day.  Apparently when I had a normal temperature and they drew blood, my cells acted one way.  When they took my blood when I had a raging fever, the cells acted completely differently…ok? So what did this mean? That’s what we wanted to know.  I do not really remember the entire conversation but I do know this was the first time that the term “auto-immune” was used to describe my body. My body does not always respond the way it is supposed to...

Through lab work, they also found out that I had tested positive for the Epstein Bar virus(AKA: mono).  Grrrrreat.  In a normal body, the cells would attack the mono virus, but because my body seemed to be responding in an auto-immune fashion, my body actually began attacking my OWN blood cells, which then just weakened my system even more.  They stopped the blood transfusion because if they had given me more blood, there just would have been a BIGGER  battle among the blood cells because my body would reject them and see them as a foreign BAD substance, causing even MORE trauma to my already weak body.  Not good.  I didn’t really need blood they told me—they needed to find a way to stop my body from reacting incorrectly. 

So basically….and I don’t understand the science behind it, but my doctors found out that my body would respond properly if my IV fluids were warmed up.  You heard me right--warmed up!  They wheeled in a contraption that warmed up my IV fluids. Are you kidding me?

If you’re anything like me, you probably didn’t see THAT one coming did you....did it work you ask?  More to come on that....