Day 37- Needles!

I'm not an exceedingly brave person. I can admit it! I'm scared of large crowds of people, and going through security at airports, and talking on the telephone, and spiders. Ughhh, spiders!

But there is one thing most people fear, or at least strongly dislike, that I can brag doesn't bother me a bit: needles. And I'm not trying to boast about the tattoo/piercing aspect- I don't have that many. No, those don't bother me either, but what I'm specifically talking about, and am absolutely fine with, is medical needles- shots, blood draws.

So I'm on this incredible medicine called Clozaril. It has done WONDERS for me! But there is a price- blood draws every 4 weeks- for years now, and all the foreseeable years to come. It can mess with your white blood count, and in extremity, can be very, very bad for you. So it must be carefully monitored. And before Clozaril, I was on Lithium for a very long time, and had frequent, periodical blood draws for that, too.

On a different aspect, two different times in my life after suffering through blood clots, I had to give myself shots in the stomach every morning for weeks. I'm not trying to be a badass or anything, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it sounds.

The second fight I had I had with blood clots, along with anemia (which doesn't make much sense, I know- I had some weird blood stuff going on) I actually had to have a blood transfusion. It took a few hours. I watched the bag of blood slowly draining away, down the tubes and into my arm. It certainly didn't hurt! It was just strange to see.

So this morning was this month's blood draw- they all know me at the lab! They greet me by name and ask about my family and ACE. They have my orders on standby. And almost every single time, they get the blood from the back of my left hand- it's just easiest for some reason.

Honestly, the worst part of being on Clozaril isn't the blood draws. It's after, when I have to leave it to all the labs to test it correctly and contact my pharmacy so I can get my refill.

Sarah