2008...

Shortly after I went back to work, my boss informed me that they were going to have to eliminate my position, but there was another job waiting for me. So I wasn't going to lose anything. My salary would be the same, my boss would just change. So in late January I moved to the managed care department. And it was a wonderful transition from what I had been doing. And more importantly, my health care benefits wouldn't change!

So for 4-5 months I was movin' along really well. I felt good, I had energy, life was damn good. Then the bleeding started.

For about 2 months I had the heaviest periods I had ever had, and they were constant. I felt tired and weak, and I didn't know what was going on. One day I called my doctor and told him what was going on... so he caled me in to get a STAT blood draw, so we could see what my blood count was. I had a really low, critical blood count when I was in the hospital back in September, in fact I had to have 4 blood transfusions. And while we never did find out why I was losing blood it got better, and I didn't have any more problems - up until now. So I go in and get the blood draw, and go bck to work. Within an hour Dr. Hinshaw caled - himself, THAT can't be good - and said my count was critical and I had to go back in to the hospital NOW.

So there we were, driving BACK to UMC... (heavy sigh) I get all checked in, and they are getting me set up for more blood transfusions. Because Coumadin, while life sustaining, is a hellacious drug, it messes up LOTS of things. So they had to take me OFF the Coumadin, and put me on Heparin. This takes a lot of tweaking and checking... it's basically a pain in the ass. So we get my transfusions going, and out of the way, but I'm STILL bleeding horribly. So my GYN, Dr. Dorsestt decides we need to do a DNC and see if that takes care of it. So we get that done on Friday. I had been in the hospital for about 2-3 days by this time, and I was pretty antsy. It's one thing to be there when you're sick and you just don't care, but it's an entirely different experience when you feel fine and feel trapped.

So the DNC worked, we got back on the Coumadin, and almost a week later, they release me. FREEDOM!