Hello, Im new to this site. First I apologize for the long post, but I am deseprately seeking others who understand my medical trauma. I have accute medical trauma and fear and it rears its ugly head whenever I have to go doctors appointments and hospitals scare me to death. Any medical tests sends my blood pressure through the roof.
This is my story: I have had 3 traumatic emergency surgeries beginning with an emeregency appendectomy at 10 years old, emergency ceaserean surgery, at 23 and emeregency quadruple heart surgery at 45.
In addition, some 35 years ago, I had, what was supposed to be a simple stress test (with medicine, not on the treadmill) that turned into a near fatal experience. After the stress test my platelets dropped from a normal 150,000-450,000 down to an extremely dangerous near deadly 9,000. As a result I spent some 52 days in the hospital during the year 1987 (much of that time barely conscious) waiting for someone to put a label on and find a cure to what had made me deathly ill).
As it turned out, during the stress test, I was apparently allergic to the IV dye or something else used in the Stress Test and after painful bone marrow tests and many many many other examinations and assessments it was determined that I had contacted a rare blood disorder called Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). I was 43 years old and my platelets etc were perfectly fine when I went in for what was called a "routine" stress test.
The next medical trauma was an emergency completely unexpected and scary quadruaple heart by-pass surgery about 10 years later. My latest medical trauma was that a routine blood test early last year discovered that I had contacted HepC, apparently from the 1987 blood transfusion that saved my life. (Docs say blood testing did not start until 1989). Anyway, the HepC lay dormant for some 35 years, during which time it caused my liver to be scarred, they believe the liver damage to be minimal. I was prescribed a 3-month regiment of meds which they said cured the hepC, and I have to be retested every 6 months or so (which think about and waiting for the results is almost unbareably traumatic).
Im fighting hard to keep my blood pressure down, but just yesterday docs determined that I need a heart cathe and possibly a stent so of course I'm all worked up and afraid again, YUK! So sorry for the long post, but I needed to tell my whole story.
This is my story: I have had 3 traumatic emergency surgeries beginning with an emeregency appendectomy at 10 years old, emergency ceaserean surgery, at 23 and emeregency quadruple heart surgery at 45.
In addition, some 35 years ago, I had, what was supposed to be a simple stress test (with medicine, not on the treadmill) that turned into a near fatal experience. After the stress test my platelets dropped from a normal 150,000-450,000 down to an extremely dangerous near deadly 9,000. As a result I spent some 52 days in the hospital during the year 1987 (much of that time barely conscious) waiting for someone to put a label on and find a cure to what had made me deathly ill).
As it turned out, during the stress test, I was apparently allergic to the IV dye or something else used in the Stress Test and after painful bone marrow tests and many many many other examinations and assessments it was determined that I had contacted a rare blood disorder called Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). I was 43 years old and my platelets etc were perfectly fine when I went in for what was called a "routine" stress test.
The next medical trauma was an emergency completely unexpected and scary quadruaple heart by-pass surgery about 10 years later. My latest medical trauma was that a routine blood test early last year discovered that I had contacted HepC, apparently from the 1987 blood transfusion that saved my life. (Docs say blood testing did not start until 1989). Anyway, the HepC lay dormant for some 35 years, during which time it caused my liver to be scarred, they believe the liver damage to be minimal. I was prescribed a 3-month regiment of meds which they said cured the hepC, and I have to be retested every 6 months or so (which think about and waiting for the results is almost unbareably traumatic).
Im fighting hard to keep my blood pressure down, but just yesterday docs determined that I need a heart cathe and possibly a stent so of course I'm all worked up and afraid again, YUK! So sorry for the long post, but I needed to tell my whole story.
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