First signs Tuesday 27th September...
Over the past few months we had asked Andrew (a Friend and a Surgeon) a lot of questions regarding Aarons health in the last year... as he seemed to be getting more and more strange sicknesses... Like one time he had this sinus infection but it was giving him the shivers he convulsed a bit and was getting weird chills... And another time he stood up and passed out for no real reason. He had been to the Dr's to get X-Rays to see if there really was a brain.. There was so that was not the problem... There were so many mysteries.. One thing we knew for sure was he was definitely more and more susceptible to little germs that the kids brought home from Kindy and School.. But we thought that was just "normal"... as it was the first year that the kids were both in Kindy and school... He caught a cold from the kids around the end of August and had to have 9 days off of work as it really knocked him out... He had no energy and was really feeling lowly.. We were worried about his job as he had only been there for 6 months.. They were really understanding... and he did a whole heap of overtime every day and they took off the overtime in-Lue of his sick days,as he did not have enough accumulated sick days to cover his time away.
Aaron had been feeling funny for a few weeks and I had been saying that he looked pale for months... We just thought that he was still a little sick from the virus he had a few weeks ago... perhaps he was coming down with something else again? He had also noticed a bruise that had hung around for 5 weeks or so and it was really dark in colour only he did not remember ever hitting himself hard enough to warrant a bruise that colour and depth ... I said that maybe he had stoped too abruptly on his brothers bike (he borrowed it to ride to work on) and he may not remember bumping himself.... He kept asking me if he should go to the Dr's and get it looked at... because it was on the inside of his groin we were both hesitant. After all it's "just" a bruise. I didn't think a bruise taking that long to heal was too abnormal.
On Thursday (22nd Sep) I wanted to go out on our weekly date night... I was frustrated that he seemed reluctant to go out.. After asking several times and getting an unenthusiastic "I'm not sure" or "I'm really tyred".... my exact words were.... "Well do you want to go out or not? It seems that you are not interested in spending time with me." I need to say here that his decreased energy was leading me to think that he was loosing zest for life... I thought he was becoming depressed or something. Also in my defence I do not normally go off the handle like that it's just we had been planning this date for a couple of weeks and it has always been difficult to get baby sitters. I was really disappointed and hurt. How was I to know that he had a rare blood disease and was suffering lethargy from the disease?
We pulled down our small 3x3 garden Shed on Saturday (24th Sep 05)รข€¦he was getting very breathless and dizzy. I was telling him to breathe deeper... It seemed to me he was suffering from anxiety and not breathing properly.... Andrew (our Surgeon friend) helped us put the shed back up When Aaron described what it was that he was feeling Andrew said "I don't know what you have got, you need someone like House,(fantastic Dr on a new TV series that diagnoses and cures rare diseases) to find out what the weird thing is that you have." After putting up the shed Aaron Drove me to an appointment that I had in the city. Then when he came home he went to bed to have a bit of a rest to get energy to continue on with the rest of the job... He moved all the little bits and pieces by himself(andwith the help of our 6 year old) as I was not going to be finished my appointment in the city until 5.30ish..
After moving all the stuff in the shed Aaron drove to pick me up in the city.
Sunday he was still feeling sickly.... We thought that he may be coming down with something else... So he stayed home from church while the children and I went...
Monday I took him to the train station so he could go to work... The walk from the train station to his work is at least a 15 to 20 mins... he called me a little while after he had been at work and asked if I could book him in to see our GP... as he was feeling more sick. He said that he was totally stuffed and his heart was pounding in his chest after walking to work. He was really worried about the breathlessness and lack of energy... I booked him in for the next day. He wanted to go in his lunch hour so he would not have to take more time off work...
I drove him to work on Tuesday morning and came back at lunch time to take him to the Dr's. As soon as we walked in and told her of the symptoms that he had been having she said that he needed to get an X- Ray of his chest to check his heart and lungs to see if they were alright and he also needed to get a blood test... She was clear in telling us that if he did not have enough time to get the X-Ray that day that she wanted to have the blood test done right away... We thought nothing of it at the time.. (Hindsight is such a wonderful thing). I picked him up from work that afternoon.
He drove to work on Wednesday morning as I didn't really need to go anywhere for the day and I could see how tyred he was... he dropped the kids off at Kindy and School and then went on to work.. I received a call from the GP's Receptionist at 8am.. I was worried and a little anxious... that they had found something.. This was obvious as they had not called us before when something little was wrong and they had never had the results first thing the next day... Donna repeated that "Dr needs to see Aaron right away".. I gave her his work phone number... then I hung up the phone and panic set in.. I waited for at least an hour, although it felt like several... every time I looked in the mirror as I wondered past the bathroom not really knowing what I was doing (I was cleaning or something) all I could think was, "It can't be something too bad, who else will love me like he loves me?" Aaron called me about one and a half hours later to tell me that our Dr said worst case scenario was it may be Leukaemia or it could be a reaction to his reflux drugs or something else that (I couldn't remember) may be the cause of his very low blood count.. Then Aaron went on the say that he would come home and pick me up... to which both Donna and our Dr said, "No!" He started to tell me that he couldn't come and he couldn't speak anymore, as his emotions were running high...As were mine... Our Dr took the phone and talked with me... She told me that he was very sick and he was at high risk of internal bleeding... if he was get a bump he may bleed out very quickly and it was not safe for him to drive from her surgery to our home (20 min drive) to come and get me. She said that they had called the ambulance and he would be going straight to the hospital. She said that she would hang onto our keys and when I could get a lift there she would talk with me too...I started to cry heaps...I called our Church women's organisation president right away. As I was preparing to attend a group lesson on how to crochet. (very old fashioned I know but my mother used to do such beautiful crochet work and I really wanted to learn... Also secretly I really like those crochet hand towels with the buttons that you hang in the kitchen... but shush that's a secret) I thought that someone there should be able to help me out. She asked me if I had looked up his drugs on the internet for side affects. And she said that someone would come to take me to our GP's soon... As soon as I got off the phone I got on the computer and typed in his reflux drugs to see if the things that had been happening to him was some known side affects... It did say that they could alter blood counts... I was hopeful that was what it was...
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