Lauren’s Weird Blood

There’s no good way to tell this story without me looking like an idiot, but Brad asked about it, so here goes. Let’s bullet point some backstory.

1. Remember when I would get those weird, itchy toes that would then get a searing pain and then a bruise? No? Well, here’s one instance and here’s another.
2. Last fall I was giving blood, and as the blood started filling the bag, the technician said, “That’s weird. It’s clotting. It’s not supposed to do that – we have anti-coagulants in the bag.” I laughed nervously and asked her to take a photo. There were snake-y like little things in there. Weird enough that I thought, “I should maybe get that checked out.” Of course, I never did.

Ok, now we’re ready for February. Lloyd and I were unloading groceries after church and all of a sudden my left index finger started to have that searing pain. Many, many thoughts ran through my head, but the primary one was, “YOU DUMMY! YOU SHOULD HAVE HAD THAT CLOTTING THING CHECKED OUT. IDIOT. NOW YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE A STROKE SOMETIME AND YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING. IDIOT.”

Behold my scaly skin, and the bump you can barely see in the middle of my finger.

I would like the record to show that I did not think I was going to die from a hurt finger, but I did wonder if I had clots just running willy-nilly through my veins, getting stuck in little capillaries…. and eventually they would get stuck in my brain. It was Sunday – the clinic wasn’t open, the urgent care place wasn’t open, and I wanted to ask questions right then, because I knew I wouldn’t get it done during the work week.

So we went to the ER.

Yep. I went to the ER for a hurt finger. There wasn’t any bruise at this point, just a minuscule swelling. MINISCULE. The staff did a very professional job not laughing at me, and I could see the inner eye roll of the doctor. I explained the toe thing and the blood clotting thing, and he walked me through preschool-level explanation of what a ‘bruise’ is, and said I probably hurt my finger shoveling snow or unloading groceries. I knew I hadn’t. Grrrrr. He said if I wanted to get some blood tests done, we could do that. Yes, yes I did. So, they took some blood.

Two hours after I left the ER, the vein burst.

I dearly wanted to go back and show the doctor and say, “See? This is what happens,” but I didn’t, because I couldn’t have afforded the second visit. (Oy. Now I know what ‘meeting your deductible’ means. That was an expensive ‘wet paper towel and a pat on the head’.)

I had a visit with my regular doctor later to go over the blood work – this time armed with photos of the toes and finger – and he said he honestly didn’t know what was causing the bruises. I appreciated his honesty. He also said we should do some further bloodwork to check some other things.

So, two things came of this: the first is that the bloodwork shows that I have iron-deficiency anemia, which is unrelated to the bruising. I’m supposed to be taking enormous amounts of iron, which is messing with my guts. We’re getting that figured out.

The second is that thanks to the internet, I found out that the vein thing is called Achenbach’s syndrome, or paroxysmal hematoma. It’s a weird vein thing that some people get. Beth has it and her daughter has it, too. So, there’s that – which is a relief regarding the stroke thing.

So, Brad – I hope that answers your question. I told you it was a long, dumb story. 😀

For Karla, and I’m sure these are all out of order. 😀