02/11/08 - Transfusion VII

I'm posting this note about nine days late... I received a report at 10:20AM on Friday, 2/1/08, that my hemoglobin and White Blood Cells (WBC) were both low. For the WBC, I had to take an antibiotic daily which I already had from the last time they went low. For my hemoglobin, I had to get a transfusion of Red Blood Cells (RBC) scheduled for 7:30AM the next day (Saturday).


Two Units of RBCs
The transfusion went well, although it lasted about eight hours. Apparently, RBC are given at a much slower rate than platelets, which take about an hour-and-a-half to transfuse...