Maybe I now have Heinz 57 steak sauce running in my veins. That is, I now have had 57 units of red blood cells transfused, most likely from 57 different donors. Each unit potentially leaves a trace of its anti-bodies behind. But since red blood cells live about 120 days, any that I received before the last 20 units are long gone. It took me about a year to get the first 29 units, but only six months to get the rest.
I was surprised that my Hgb was only 8.7 on Tuesday, requiring the transfusion that I had this morning. It was only 10 days since the last one and the average time is now 16 days for this year.
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