Cookie's still in a piece!

Oh, dear... I hate publicity and I'm beginning to sense that I've just done that - to announce such a thing on my blog, instead of telling some close friends personally. Thank you everyone for the sincere wishes and du'as. I've received numerous emails from close friends and old friends but I haven't yet replied them.

Let me tell you what has been happening. On Monday, we set an appointment with the doctor, thus we went in on Tuesday. That was when I flung the test. The doctor was about to brush us off with details I'm not bothering to furnish here, when I kept on insisting that Mr D be sent for further investigation. Thank God she listened to me, as she saw the tears in my eyes which later managed to escape - somehow. Mr D was surprised to see the tears streaming down my cheeks. As soon as we stepped out the room, he asked me, "You cried?"

I just smiled back. You see, I've been putting up this fort for so long, and since the very beginning (of his illness), I've always shown him the tough side of me. I have never cried in front of him. Mrs D is one tough cookie, eh!!

So, anyway, the doctor sent Mr D for a blood test (again!!!). Only this time, it was marked urgent and she booked us another appointment with her the following day - Wednesday. That night, I had someone bang on the door at about half past nine. It was a man from the health centre and he wanted our phone number so that a doctor could get to us immediately, to inform us regarding the blood test results. Don't ask me why he couldn't just tell us whatever it was himself. He was just the messenger! So, after a while, we received a phone call saying that we need to see our doctor the following morning.

The next morning, we went to the doctors again. The results showed that Mr D has very low haemoglobin - 7.6. He's anaemic. Oh, there were other figures too, but the most prominent ones were his haemoglobin and INR : 1.5. Sorry, I guess these are too detailed, only to be understood by those in the medical line. The doctor began to panic. She immediately directed us to the hospital for further treatment.

However, we couldn't go to the hospital that day. We were already dead tired and we hadn't made arrangements for the children yet. Therefore, we decided to go to the hospital the following day - Thursday (today). It was a good thing we went when we went.

I met my step cousin's daughter there - S! Boy, was I surprised and elated to discover that she's a doctor at the hospital! She's been here in the UK for 2 years but only moved into this city 2 months ago. Suddenly, the world appeared much brighter. The clouds were gone. I met her at the very moment we were heading towards the individual room we were allocated (to be attended by a doctor). Hence, it was the perfect timing. She persuaded her colleague who was about to step in, to switch patients. And he agreed!! Praise the Almighty!

After some screams, squeals, hugs and quick updates of our families, we immediately got down to business - Mr D's health. Tonight Mr D is in the hospital, with 3 units of blood tranfused into him. According to him, he's beginning to get more colour now. He will probably stay in the hospital for a while - for them to run tests on him, yet again. The main aim, though, is to find the cause of the DVT/ gastritist / anaemia. This time, nonetheless, I'm more hopeful. At least I have S to help me request for the right treatments and tests. At least now I have a distant family member close by.