It is the end of October. I am not feeling much better. Back pain has subsided a little or maybe I’m just getting used to it. This shortness of breath makes everything difficult. I find myself on the couch more and more, no daily walks, no horseback riding, no gardening, no cello lessons. It’s all I can do to get off the couch and go to the bathroom! All interest in food is gone, I’m not cooking. If Jerry or Scott were not bringing me food I wouldn’t eat. I’m barely able to do any household chores. It seems like too much effort for me to drive my car. I am even taking naps! Which is something I have never been able to do. I HATE THIS! I can not take it anymore! What is happening to me???

November first is my follow up appointment with my primary doctor. I tell Jerry,” I can’t go one more day feeling this way, take me to the emergency room and maybe they will give me a B-12 shot or something.” So off we go! Chest x-rays, blood tests, fluids, yuck! Still no B-12? Tests come back, somethings wrong, I am severely anemic!? Why? I’m not bleeding anywhere. A few more tests and they say I will have to be admitted. Off to the hospital we go. WHAT? What happened to the B-12 shot?

The hospital…a place I avoid like the plague! Now I am here being poked and prodded at all hours of the day and night. My veins don’t like this and will not cooperate. Tests and more tests, I am too weak to put up a fight. My arms are bruised from all the pokes I look like I have been beaten. I feel like I am a foreigner in a strange place in a lifeless body. A doctor comes in  and tells me a normal person has about 14 units of blood and for some reason I have 6, my spleen is swollen, and they don’t know why. Surprised I am even walking around like this. More tests. After a few days I get a blood transfusion, what a difference! I feel like I might live, there is color in my face, and an ounce of energy! By the way, thank you to all the people that donate blood, you may have saved my life over the last few months! To be continued