The evening of December 27th, 2013, began much like any other evening for me. Slipped into my running outfit, grabbed a bottle of water, and off I went to run. It was a cool night, normal for this time of year and there was some snow on the ground. As usual I saw familiar faces along the way, house lights left on, the crows sitting by the river, a few kids hanging around but generally a quiet lonely night. As usual I turned on my MP3 player to the same music I have been listening to for almost three years and made a mental note to myself that I need to update my selection. Earlier that night I had taken three ibuprofen in anticipation of some back pain I had felt twinging earlier. I never gave it a thought. Why should I worry? I've never even had the flu in my life. Very healthy body in general, be it at times just a bit to heavy, but we have all had that battle. The time went quickly, the air felt good, the snow under the street lamps was pretty and I felt great. I was excited as in a few days we would be leaving for our condo in Cape Coral, Florida. It is the one thing my wife and I really look forward to. It is a physical and mental escape for both of us. I completed my four miles, stopped by the 7-11 to buy a hot chocolate, and then headed for home. Listening to the radio on the way home, a song I loved came on. It was Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. I've loved this song since its release in 1976. It is special as both of our boys learned to sing it on the way to Sanibel Island on our first family vacation in March of 1976, I felt good, nothing not even a back ache or a sniffle. I arrived back home and around 10:30PM I decided to check my Facebook and then get some sleep. I noticed a slight dizziness but forgot about it. Attributed it to getting old. After signing off Facebook I arose to go to the bedroom. More dizziness so I stopped and leaned against the door. Nausea over came me. I barely made it to the bathroom before it happened. When one sees blood where blood shouldn't be, you tend to stop and assess. I told my wife to call 911. When they arrived my blood pressure had fallen to 76/41. I was scared, not for me so much but because my wife has serious heart problems. This couldn't be good for her. Panic is not in my repertoire, but I did that night. This is twice in the last three years that this has happened. The first time it was blamed on a small hard coated 81mg aspirin being lodged in my small intestine. I was given 8 units of blood over a 10 day period that time. Hemoglobin was at 7.2. This time it was 8.4. (For reference purposes I have added a table of normal values.
Age Group Hemoglobin Count (gm/dl)
Newborn Babies 17- 22
Children 11-13
Adults (Male) 14-18
Adults (Female) 12-16
Elderly (Male) 12.4-14.9
Elderly (Female) 11.7-13.8
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/normal-hemoglobin-levels.html)
Tomorrow I will describe the hospital visit and show what and how it was done.
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