Spitting Into the Wind

Hit by lightning.  Again.  I feel like the frail off-screen distant relative of some major TV character.  You know the one.  Every weekly episode has a new throw-away one-liner.  “You remember Elaine —  Maude’s uncle’s wife’s cousin?  She just had her gall bladder removed.”  “She just got hit by a car.” “An albatross knocked her over on its yearly migration and broke her arm.” “She just died from an infected hangnail.”  “She just died again when she got hit by a zero-gravity toilet seat that re-entered Earth’s gravity after the ISS fell out of orbit.”  (Sorry, that last one was ripped off from “Dead Like Me,” which was a vastly under-rated series if you never got to see it.)

On the plus side, I now know why I lost my original liver eighteen years ago.  OK, technically it wasn’t lost so much as thrown away.  Anyhow.  I now know why I’ve had neuresthesia in my hands and feet for decades.  I know why I get ocular migraines now.  The reason why I perpetually itch, and why it gets worse after a shower is now explained.  I may even finally have an explanation as to the tinnitus and the macular degeneration.  It all boils down to a another rare-ish condition called Polycythemia Vera.Collapse )

I’m still waiting for genetic marker testing to come back, but the disease is usually caused by a gene that zigged when it should have zagged and isn’t usually a hereditary condition.  It’s usually diagnosed in people in their 60’s, but frankly I think that’s because it’s a missed diagnosis until it gets completely out of hand.  But I’ll skip the editorializing for the moment.  The Reader’s Digest version is that my marrow has joined the Type-A Overachievers’ Club and is overproducing red blood cells and platelets at a rate comparable to that of the conveyer belt in the episode where Lucy and Ethel are working in a chocolate factory. 

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Normal human female hematocrit is around 43.  Five days ago mine was 62.  They did a red blood cell reduction procedure on my yesterday and knocked it down to 51.  I’ll probably be called back for another reduction procedure early next week.  

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6 Comments

  1. Well, that’s a fine kettle of fish.

    Will this treatment be helpful for some of your symptoms???

    Oh yeah. Dead Like Me. It’s a real gem. One of my favorites.

  2. Sorry I didn’t see this sooner. I’ve been out of the DD loop for quite a while. I’m going to TRY to come back. We’ll see how that goes.

  3. How are you doing?

    I’m touching base with everyone on DD today. I just made a long overdue entry and am hoping to write more often. I’ve been distancing my self from the crazy social media stuff and feeling nostalgic for DD community. Just wondering how to stay in touch with those who still write here from time to time.

    Hope you are well….. Y.

    1. Still here, still visiting sporadically. February 2nd will mark the two-year anniversary of home isolation. Oddly enough, not being able to go out freely except for doctor’s appointments has me isolating on line too. I formulated a couple of updates, but they sounded too “pity me, pity me” to post. It was really good to see you’re still out an about in cyberland though.

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