Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Another Doctor Visit, Really? Good for "Staked!"

So today Daniel telephones me from the drama camp where he's a volunteer this week because he's struggling with a nosebleed that won't quit. I talk him through it, offer some self-help measures, and told him to call me back with an update.

After he got the thing under control, I called his ENT to schedule my third day of medical running this week. Unfortunately, Daniel's regular doctor is gone until Monday, and just one other doctor in the group is covering for the other three. Still, the nurse didn't want to postpone the visit since it's Daniel's third day in a row with a nosebleed. Yay us.

You see, Daniel has some malformed blood vessels, which the ENT chemically "burns" off. As those vessels grow back (You'd think the pesky suckers would get the hint by now), the nosebleeds return, so every few months, we're taking Daniel to the ENT for yet another (and another and another) cauterization.

 I find it interesting that our medical adventures parallel my love for gothic vampire fiction.

Daniel has periodic nosebleeds, three boys have confirmed polycythemia (the rest of us have scattered symptoms but no firm diagnosis yet), which is an inherited syndrome where the bone marrow manufactures too many red blood cells. The treatment? Good ol' fashioned, medieval medicine: periodic bleedings (phlebotomies).

Oh, and did I mention Daniel needs a whole bunch of blood tests on Friday?

Because the nurse double booked the ENT for tomorrow, we are prepared to wait. The waiting room is small and generally packed, so it's difficult to work on freelance assignments via laptop. Juggling pages of notes is awfully clumsy when you're sitting knee to knee with strangers.

So I guess this means I'll just have to work on Staked! The sacrifices I make, sheesh!

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