A healthy adult has 150,000–400,000 platelets per cubic millimeter. So what is a cubic millimeter? No idea. But I understood pretty quickly that 7,000 -- which was the level on the blood test done on January 24, 2008 -- was a lot less than 150,000. I was an English major, but that was math that even I could do.
It was low enough that the hematologist called and told me to go the ER and said I would be admitted immediately. It turns out that when you go to an ER and say, "Hey, my doctor says I have no platelets and that you need to admit me before I hemorrhage right before your eyes," they make you wait all of 2 minutes and then usher you to the VIP room behind the velvet rope.
The first thing the ER doctor did was re-test me, just in case the last one was wrong. It was. I was actually at 3,000. He also made the helpful comment that I was lucky I came in when I did, because I'd have been in his ER eventually -- either walking in, like I did, or rushed in on a gurney.
Gee, thanks, Patch Adams!
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