TTP Blood Test and Night Caps

Yesterday was TTP blood test day.  I was grateful the date had come around as I felt I need a blood test.  I had a cold started a few weeks ago, covid test showed negative but it was a nasty one and has left me with intermittent headaches and a blocked nose.  On Saturday my face began to ache and by Sunday I had the biggest headache.   Headaches that paracetamol don't touch can be one of the warning signs for TTP and I was thinking it was time to be tested.   

The hospital is a 50 mile round trip but my lovely husband drives me without complaining.  I'm usually able to choose the time because it's booked a month in advance and we go for midmorning so we don't have to rush. 

Yesterday I reported to reception and was crossed off the paper blood test only list.  A name was called, not mine but close enough to make me look up.  The name was called again and then the receptionist stood up and just called the forename.   I walked over and she said ' Oh, there you are!'

In the phlebotomy room it became apparent that the wrong name was on the list.  The first time this has ever happened,  but I didn't need it yesterday.  It shows the importance of giving dates of birth.  I have labels printed in advance, so that was fine.

The health assistant,  not one of the usual ones in the phlebotomy room, was surprised by the number of labels and bottles, 6 in all.  Some are sent on to Specialist TTP Centre in Bristol to check the Adamts 13 enzyme level, while the remainder are tested locally.  The needle didn't work so well this time and blood was slow to draw.  That has happened before, I've told that we have tiny values in our veins, to make sure the blood goes one way around our body.  If you catch a value the blood doesn't draw,  some phlebotomists start again, this one didn't.

Eventually,  enough blood was taken and sealed up into the bag with my Adamts 13 request form, and is hopefully headed to Bristol as I type.  

We always hangs around in the town for an hour or two before driving home. It's my insurance policy against being called back immediately.   Once they needed more blood and on arriving home we had to just turn around and return.  So now a quick trip to M&S, Primark, or a garden centre, fills the odd hour before returning home.  No phone call yesterday so that's good news.

It's a waiting game now.  If platelets are low the phone call comes quickly,  if Adamts 13 is dipped then the phone call will be later in the week, after the test is completed. 

I laid awake at 4am last night.  The headache had woken me and I went to the bathroom and took two paracetamol with a cup of warm milk.  My mind wandered from blood tests to nightcaps.  Not the alcoholic type but the ones worn by Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.  Despite being warm and cosy in my bed, my head was cold, and you can lose a lot of heat through your head.

When did people stop wearing night caps I wondered.   My parents never wore them as far as I know, and they didn't have central heating until their later years.  We always had rubber hot water bottles,  perhaps they were the end of night caps.  I wondered how you cope with a hat at night, I can see the benefit of ribbon on a bonnet but not a cap.  Would it stay on?  Would it end up at the bottom of the bed by my feet?

I drifted back to sleep and dreamt of an ex work colleague I haven't seen for 10 years.  Who knows how my mind works.

No mindfulness walk today.  I'm staying in the warm until this blasted cold has gone. It might be a crochet day