An interesting few hours. I went and got my bloods done, as we didn’t know where we were. I got a lift from Max, who was kind, and waited for my bloods.

Doctor Murray had put in a good word, so I had a nice chat with the specialist. I left a little emotional and low, but talking out my condition distracted me.

Sitting there we had a bet of what my blood count would be. Given my pale face and symptoms they Dr Godson and Nurse Gill bet the haemoglobin would be 67 and 59. Average is 120. We waited agog and when it came it at 34 they were surprised I was still standing, or at least sitting and conversing.

Apparently I should be comatose and possibly unable to move.An Hb value less than 5.0 g/dL (50 g/L) can lead to heart failure and death. It was surprising I have two interviews the day before on zoom and had any chance of looking after the kids. This was all attributed to my marathon running and body tolerance of compensation. It couldn’t go on though, and u was circling the drain.

Luckily my medical friends swung in again. I hadn’t hears from the professor but was due a chat tomorrow, so I let me know. He rather took it in his stride, seems I flagged up I was feeling unwell on the 4th.

[19/01, 17:48] Marcus Evans: I will need to reschedule tomorrow im afraid. My haemoglobin is at 34 and I will be having a few blood transfusions. I should be out tomorrow late afternoon. Do you want me to contact the main line to book?
[19/01, 17:49] Doctor Gribben: I’ll rebook for you. No wonder you were feeling tired. We need to see you again soon though.

We slotted in a chest x-ray and tomorrow I will have a CT scan of the brain due to the vision spots which are concerning.

So I was checked in and transfusions were lined up. It took a while for the blood to arrive. It took ages to get the canulla sited. My veins are very small right now. In the end we did and I am now up and running. I am.not allowed to move my arm, so we are just going with it for the moment. I feel a little weird but we will see how we go and update later.

I will miss my vaccine tomorrow and will try and reorganise for later in the week. For not it’s all about the blood we need to get a lot in.

Doctor Hodson and team has been great. I am in a swabbed covid safe hospital and they took the time to answer all my questions. Food for thought they don’t do Bendamustine at the moment, just rituximab here, as it is less of an issue on its own. Still to talk about after the sweet sweet blood.