• Tidak ada hasil yang ditemukan

The Day Live Fast Die Young started to lose its appeal

N/A
N/A
Protected

Academic year: 2017

Membagikan "The Day Live Fast Die Young started to lose its appeal"

Copied!
2
0
0

Teks penuh

(1)

Title:

The Day ˆLive Fast Die Young˜ started to lose its appeal Word Count:

964 Summary:

Steve Morgan describes how consistently ignoring even the smallest of signs that all is not well with your health can ultimately lead to potentially fatal consequences later on.

Keywords:

Blood Tests, Blood Count, Blood Pressure, Blood Test

Article Body:

Somehow the youthful notion of ˆlive fast, die young!˜ becomes less appealing as the days go by. Funny that, isn´t it?

I remember the day well, it all started in May 1997 with a routine (or so I thought) Doctors appointment in the morning and then the usual rounds of trying to keep clients and staff happy. It was the day of my thirty ninth birthday and so I was looking forward to the celebratory dinner engagement later that evening. I had been feeling slightly ˆrun down˜, a euphemism here for ˆexhausted˜ but had put it down to slightly busy times in the office and so had finally relented to my wife´s pleas to ˆgo and see the Doc and get everything checked out˜. Upon my return to the office in mid afternoon, I received a message from one of my colleagues ˆyour doctor called and you are to call him back straight away˜. ˆAh, get the multivitamins ready and get ready to cut back on the alcohol time˜ I thought but alas not so.

ˆHow are things Doc?˜

ˆI´m fine but you´re not. I have a hospital bed set aside (he gave me the details of the hospital in question) and you are to get there straight away. I will see you there shortly.˜ OK, a little bit harsh and to the point I thought. ˆIs there any particular reason?˜ I asked rather glibly.

ˆYes, you need a blood transfusion straight away and we will take it from there. I´ll explain more when I see you there˜

Things were starting to get a little too serious for my liking. Feeling slightly like a child who had been playing Monopoly and had just received the ˆGo straight to jail. Do not pass Go and do not collect £200 (or whatever your currency is depending on where you are reading this article)˜ I put the telephone down, stared at the blank wall in front of me and tried not to go into major panic mode. The day was definitely not going to plan. The next thing was to inform my wife of exactly what had happened (to the best of my knowledge), put the birthday celebrations on hold; cancel the restaurant reservation and trying not to drive into anyone or anything else I headed home to pack some ˆovernight things˜ for my short stay in hospital.

ˆOvernight things!˜ I had prepared myself for overnight business trips before but somehow I wasn´t too sure whether the hospital would appreciate me arriving with laptop, mobile and modem et al in tow and so things were a little different this time. The problem as it turned out had been that I had an abnormally low haemoglobin level that had surfaced as part of a routine Blood Test that had been carried out that morning.

The haemoglobin test is normally ordered as a part of the complete blood count (CBC) which is ordered for many different reasons, including as a general health screening. The test is also repeated in patients who have ongoing bleeding problems or chronic anaemia´s or polycythemias. Normal values in an adult are 12 to 18 grams per decilitre (100 millilitres) of blood. Above-normal haemoglobin levels may be the result of:

¯ Dehydration,

¯ Excess production of red blood cells in the bone marrow, ¯ Severe lung disease, or

¯ Several other conditions.

Below-normal haemoglobin levels may lead to anaemia that can be the result of:

¯ iron deficiency or deficiencies in essential vitamins of other elements, such as B12, foliate, B6, ¯ inherited haemoglobin defects, such as sickle cell anaemia or thalassemias,

¯ Other inherited defects affecting the red blood cells,

(2)

Somehow, though grateful for their concern, I found it rather difficult to share their enthusiasm. You see, dear reader, the real problem in the whole proceedings had been with my own rather stupid (it´s a ˆguy˜ thing) concept in ignoring the warning signs that had been building up over the years and signing up for a lifetimes course in the ˆheal thyself˜ school of medicine.

As a Consultant pointed out rather bluntly at a later stage I had almost killed myself with my own stupidity. I had been losing rather large amounts (at times) of blood during regular bodily functions (I won´t dwell on this too much but you get the drift) but because I had been young and fit had managed to overcome these losses without too much in the way of inconvenience. Also because of my extremely low blood count, to compensate, my blood pressure (though normal at the time) had been kept artificially low. The moral of the story so far is don´t be stupid, don´t ignore the warning signs and if confronted with anything slightly out of the norm then get it checked out and don´t die of ignorance and shame.

So having received my ˆGet out of jail free card˜, most normal individuals with more than a half functioning brain would have then proceeded through life with caution but sadly it appeared that I was destined to ˆgo for broke next time˜.

This is a demo version of txt2pdf v.10.1

Referensi

Dokumen terkait

Pokja Pengadaan Barang/Jasa Dinas Perhubungan dan Kominfo ULP Kota Metro yang beralamat di Sekretariat ULP/Gedung Sesat Jl.. 153 Kota Metro, akan melaksanakan Pelelangan

In the case of LSMHM, sociology of literature will be used in reading the novel, particulary the perspective that literary work is the social condition relection.. Relection

Proses pengembangan ekowisata menuntut adanya modal sosial yang kuat dalam hal ini, jaringan, kepercayaan, norma, dan partisipasi masyarakat.. Berikut merupakan

Pada sentral EWSD, Switching Network memakai system penyambungan dengan kecepatan tinggi, Switching Network mempunyai bentuk yang padat yang dapat menampung nomor yang besar

I Gede Made Yudi Antara dkk./ Majalah Geografi Indonesia... I Gede Made Yudi Antara dkk./ Majalah

Kelompok Kerja Pengadaan Jasa Konsultansi pada Satuan Kerja Dinas Pekerjaan Umum Kabupaten Tanjung Jabung Timur Propinsi Jambi akan melaksanakan prakualifikasi

Untuk usaha budidaya tanaman kelapa sawit di Desa Tolole Kecamatan Ampibabo Kabupaten Parigi Moutong, agar hasil produksi lahan tanaman kelapa sawit dapat maksimal

[r]