[healthwork, gore] (I am fine!)

[kaberett]

I fundamentally keep forgetting that the majority of the population, even of the population who know me, is unlikely to react in a calm and relaxed fashion to "ohhhhhh I've worked out part of what's probably going on, it's almost certainly hard-to-detect no-obvious-external-symptoms causing-clinically-significant-anaemia internal bleeding, but it's okay it's not IMPORTANT internal bleeding, no point doing anything other than waiting til my GP appointment next week, oh well".

(IT'S OKAY IT'S REALLY GENUINELY NOT IMPORTANT INTERNAL BLEEDING if it were going to kill me rapidly -- my symptoms are not currently significantly ramping up, well, except insofar as the iron initially helped with the anaemia symptoms and then s t o p p e d doing that -- I'd have died sometime since September, we're cool, I promise, it's genuinely not even worth calling 111 about this)

Comments

[alexseanchai]

while I trust your assessment of the situation, nonetheless: eeek!

[redsixwing]

...huh.

It's amazing what one can get used to, no?

That's not to say I didn't have an 'eeeek!' moment myself, but - well, I can understand the "it's not killing me, it's not getting worse, heck with it until the appointment."

[kaberett]

I should possibly clarify that if someone with more medical training than me wants to look at this, and my endometriosis, and my family history of pernicious anaemia, and my general exciting cluster of current symptoms, and say ALEX PLEASE GO AND SIT IN ADDENBROOKE'S A&E MAKING A NUISANCE OF YOURSELF UNTIL ANDREW PRENTICE CAN BE COLLARED TO TELL YOU TO FUCK OFF HOME AND STOP WASTING EVERYBODY'S TIME, then I will do as I'm told? But otherwise ehhhhhh provided I spend the next week hydrating and mostly asleep...

[alexwlchan]

Among everyone I know, you’re probably among the most qualified to judge the severity of your own symptoms. Even so: yaeeesh!

[kaberett]

So this was in fact the soonest sensible appointment I could get with the GP I trust as of about a week ago? I could have a go at insisting on him seeing me sooner but frankly it's a 3-hour round trip for a ten-minute appointment and I want to combine it with something else down that end of town because, see above, symptoms of anaemia.

(If enough people yell at me I'll consider attempting to get a phone appointment with him! Just -- "abruptly being prone to nosebleeds" + "lots of abdominal lesions that are known to bleed in a way that doesn't provide any obvious external symptoms" + "obvious symptoms of anaemia" = An Obvious Story, and like the absolute worst-case scenario is I go from "sleeping all the time" to "really obviously exhibiting symptoms of blood loss" at which point I get a transfusion and probably an iron transfusion for good measure, and... yeah I'm not panicking overmuch about that happening this week if it hasn't yet.)

[kaberett]

the GMC keeps threatening to shut our local A&E down because it's an actively dangerous environment for student and junior doctors to be training in, so like, Avoiding Going There is quite high up on my to-do list...

[kaberett]

(the properly hilarious bit of all this is that I put it all together because I'd shut myself in the bathroom to have a bit of a Mental Ill, and got thoroughly derailed from it when I blew my nose and gOT BLOOD ON ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SHIRTS >:( )

[redsixwing]

Blergh. Yeah, I can see how that would be best worked in carefully, that travel time is obnoxious.

Endo is a stone beast and I hope it continues to not get worse. (And if it does? Please do go get the thing, but I'm sure you know what the flags are.)

... ... ... wait a minute. Sleeping all the time is a blood loss thing?
You just explained a thing to me. OTL thanks.

[kaberett]

Yep, blood loss and anaemia have fatigue as a major symptom! Oxygen can't get where it needs to go quickly enough so everything has to work that much harder, etc etc etc. Good luck getting it sorted <3

[sgsabbage]

Ugh blood is such a pain to get out of clothing as well :(

[sgsabbage]

...um that made me sound less like a serial killer in my head...

[davidgillon]

Sounds like a reasonable analysis of facts leading to a viable hypothesis.

It clearly hasn't killed you, it didn't look like it was killing you when I saw you pre-Christmas, waiting 'til next week sounds perfectly viable.

IIRC bleeding into the bowel should be detectable via the joys of stool samples, so this may even be a falsifiable hypothesis. For Science!

[watersword]

All I can think is this line from Brooklyn 99.

[alatefeline]

*sliiiiightly spiky fur along spine*

*soothing purr*

*attempts to become a cat-cushion for your warmth and comfort*

[vass]

Ohhh, that makes sense. So if it hasn't stopped on its own after so long and is making you ill, will they go in and find the dripping tap and change the washer/cauterise something?

[silveradept]

I'm a bit ! about all that, but if you think it's not bad enough to warrant the visit...

[hilarita]

Ahh, the joys of chronic illness, where previously symptoms that would be like OMG I should really do something about that become symptoms that are ehh, I'll maybe mention it to my GP next time I'm there.

[kaberett]

WHO KNOWS.

(I think it's likely to be secondary to whatever is actually going on - I've got a weird cluster of symptoms - so probably I get Investigations...)

[ewt]

Oh, joy.

Best luck, etc etc.

[kaberett]

*snort*

[kaberett]

HAPPILY it was only a small quantity of blood, so I emerged from the bathroom with some loo roll clamped to my face and imperiously demanded that, in a total change of subject, A remove my clothing and set the shirt soaking in a salt solution. Before it had a chance to dry. So it's PROBABLY going to be absolutely fine, but OF COURSE the precise bit of the cuff in question is white...

(Mysteriously, Adam has less experience washing blood out of clothing than I do. I WONDER WHY.)

[kaberett]

There's not thus far been any *evidence* of bleeding into the bowel, though of course attempting to determine if I am will be complicated by (1) the iron supplements and (2) the fairly routine genuinely-completely-harmless minor rectal bleeding I get Just Because...

[kaberett]

yep :-p

[kaberett]

offer-of-scritches!

[kaberett]

:-p if I decline rapidly I'll make A drive me to somewhere with a competent A&E xx

[kaberett]

lolyep.

like, I was in fact already going to see the GP about the cluster of increased inflammatory+allergic responses generally/rapid unexplained weight changes/profound fatigue, but the "increased bleeding" + "anaemia non-responsive to iron supplements" gets mentioned as part of that...

[kaberett]

Thank you. <3

[davidgillon]

Isn't being one of those 'interesting' patients wonderful! {Rolls Eyes}

[killing_rose]

I am not about to say "Alex go to the ER", mostly because a) I trust you, and b) yeah, if it hasn't killed you by now...

("Bad news is I have the thing that easily kills people! Good news is this is the fifth time this year!" is a statement *I* utter semi-regularly, so I have no stones to throw here. Serotonin syndrome really enjoys my body, but we can't precisely get rid of my meds.)

[sylvaine]

Mmmmm, fuuun....

[redsixwing]

Well, heck. Thank you - that, I think, solves a minor mystery.

Not currently in play, thank goodness, but it means rather than "inexplicable pain response," that was part of the Endo Year of Awful and a symptom I can watch for, should the internals start to misbehave again.

[kaberett]

HA.

I mean, fatigue is also a known endo symptom just because of the body-wide inflammatory response, but yeah, the blood loss wouldn't have helped <3

[ludy]

Eep! Hoping GP is helpful and in the meeting it continues to be extremely minor

[rmc28]

So my response kind of went

1. WHAT
2. Er ok makes sense
3. But Alex you are BLEEDING um I'm sure you know your body best and I respect your autonomy and decision making
4. But I now have a frustrated urge to provide I don't know heatpacks and hot chocolate and similar

I imagine it would have gone fairly similarly in person...

[kaberett]

I am HYPOTHETICALLY BLEEDING the hypothesis has not yet been confirmed <3

But yes hot chocolate thank you I will go make myself some now :-)

[sporky_rat]

Oh joy, this part of anaemia. (Granted, I'm entirely to used to my mother's progression of anaemia, so mark me down as someone with the anaemia checklist?)

Good luck with the getting the blood out of the shirt and do visit a good A&E if it gets nastier or the like. (You know yourself and your history and the like.)