Day 35

Hemeglobin 9.9
Platelets 17
WBC 0.1
Creatinine 1.19

Today there was a bit of excitement around here.  I was sleeping when the nurse began infusing platelets around 1030.  A little after 1100 I woke up; it felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest and my entire body itched like crazy.  I started coughing and I realized what was going on:  I was having an allergic reaction to the platelets for the first time.  Thirty seconds later I had nurses and doctors running in and out while I sat on the edge of the bed wheezing.  The platelets caused a systemic allergic reaction, much like someone with food allergies after eating a peanut.  My bronchi became inflamed and started tightening up, making it difficult to breathe and my entire body broke out in hives.  They gave me benadryl and corticosteroids to help calm the reaction and paged respiratory therapy stat.  They showed up after a couple minutes and gave me a nebulizer of albuterol to open my airways.  The drugs made me sleepy but I felt better fast.

Reactions to blood products are common and are more likely to occur the more blood products you receive.  After I recovered they drew my blood for testing against the platelets I received to see what went wrong.  They found that the platelets themselves were not the problem.  There was also no trace of bacteria in the platelets that could've caused the reaction.  The lab figured that it was caused by a protein impurity, something that can happen from time to time.  A more aggressive pre-infusion medication plan should help prevent a future reaction.

Otherwise things remain well.