Fingers in the Dyke

C had been feeling progressively worse over the last couple of days - extremely low energy, nausea, shakiness. She looked pale, as though she was starting to pass over into that other place.

We found out why when we went to the clinic yesterday. She is bleeding internally. You see, when you have multiple myeloma, the disease causes many problems. Among which are kidney failure and disfunctional bone marrow. The results of these two things are that C cannot replenish her blood products as normal people can. She cannot make enough platelets and red blood cells to keep up with daily wear and tear. On top of that, her failing kidneys cannot keep her blood clear of toxins. Put those two together and you have a scenario where the few platelets that she does have are hindered in their work by the increased toxin levels around them. Hence, little to no clotting takes place.

What is happening is that C is bleeding to death through little cracks and wear points in her intestines - death by one thousand cuts.

So, yesterday, we shoved her full of platelets and two units of red blood cells. Today, we will do two bags of platelets and another two units of red blood cells. Then we wait and see if we have enough fingers in the dyke.

If not, then it is a matter of days.

P.