Series of Unfortunate Events: Chapter 7: Finger Stick...ick!!!!

Remember...you've been warned...parts of this might gross you out....sorry in advance if you decide to keep reading...

I remained in the hospital with no real significant changes over the next few days.  They continued to heat up my IV fluids and slowly I began to see some changes.  I also continued my ridiculous amounts of blood work.  For a girl that had a body that was fighting and killing off its own blood cells, it sure seemed counter intuitive to me for them to be taking so much every day, but what do I know?!?

Probably the most unlovely thing that happened was on Day 3.  My GI doctor was still puzzle by my GI symptoms and was debating doing a colonoscopy on me.  Because my body was in such a weakened state, he really didn’t feel good about putting me under and doing that procedure….so instead he did what I call a “finger stick.”  He had me roll over on my side, put on his rubber glove, and well…I’ll let your mind “go there.”  I’m so glad that I was still feeling so lousy that I didn’t even mind because I was soooo out of it.  Remember I’m a 19-year-old teenager at this point.  This was not exactly my idea of fun!!!  I’m not really sure what evidence he got from that “finger stick” but they deemed me too unhealthy to do a colonoscopy. 

From there, I also started receiving steroids in my IV.  Almost immediately after that my stomach pains and GI symptoms seemed to vanish and my stomach came back with vengeance.  By this point it had been about 9 days since I had eaten, and the only thing I’d had during that time was half a bagel in the airport.  I was running on fumes, but thankful that food sounded good. 

I remember ordering almost everything I could to eat—a turkey club sandwich, fruit, chips, a chocolate shake…the works.  I ate every bit of it, and it never tasted so delicious!

Also my doctors informed me at this point that they were pretty confident that I have a condition called “cold-agglutinin hemolytic anemia,” where my blood cells tend to react abnormally in situations of extreme heat and cold (which was why my body had reacted so strangely when I ran such high fevers).

By day 3 or 4 in Iowa City, things were starting to be explained to where we understood what was happening, we were getting answers, I was able to eat and keep food in me (woohoo!!!!), and I could start to sleep at night.  Things were looking up…