Bleeding to Death

* Just a TMI warning!!!! Everything surrounding my hospitalization and surgery is pretty gross, so if you don't want to know really inappropriate details about my body, I would stop reading!


My misadventure began around Tuesday, March 8th. I noticed that every time I went to the bathroom, there was a scary amount of blood in the toilet. I think most people at that point would assume something was wrong and would make an appointment to see the doctor. I was not that smart. I knew I had a doctor's appointment the following Monday, so I figured that I would wait until then to bring up my concerns.  As the days went by I felt more and more sluggish, tired and light-headed. I asked Sky what he thought about it, and he brushed it off saying there was no way the two things were connected. He confirmed aloud what I thought in my head: that I was (as usual) being dramatic and that I was just a little under the weather.

Fast forward to Saturday. It was our only day off together so I was determined to do something fun, despite not feeling well. We drove out to Salt Pond to have a beach day. I was feeling dizzier and more nauseas than I had ever felt, but I kept telling myself that it would pass. Walking towards the trail for the beach, I became so dizzy that I had no choice but to stop and sit on the ground. After waiting for more than 10 minutes for it to pass, I realized that there was no way I could make it the beach, which was only about 1/3 of a mile away. Sky wound up carrying me back to the car because I couldn't find the strength to even stand up. We drove back home where, again, I was too weak to even get out of the car. So Sky carried me into the house and put me on the couch, which I couldn't find the energy to leave, for the rest of the day.

Around 8pm on Saturday evening I felt worse, not better. We finally decided to go to the ER. I don't remember the car ride there, but Sky says that I was completely unresponsive to his questions. I guess I passed out.

When we arrived at the ER they wheeled me in, asked a few questions and did some blood work. Very quickly they came back with the results which were shocking to me. My hemoglobin levels were dangerously low and I would need to be transported to St Thomas immediately for a blood transfusion. They told me it was a good thing that I came in that evening, because losing blood at the rate I was would have caused organ failure, coma, or even death in just another day or two. I was bleeding to death. I was so shocked to hear this! A huge part of me was lying in the ER feeling silly for even being there. So to hear that there was something seriously wrong with me was almost surreal. And scary. And that's how this all started...