It's A Balance

"What's that?" I ask.

Cindy is inserting a needle into one of my free Hickman ports. There is a clear liquid. She pushes it in slowly.

"Heparin," she says. "Kind of a blood thinner. It'll help make sure that your blood doesn't clot."

"I thought my blood was already too thin. Isn't that what the platelets are supposed to be doing? Making my blood thicker again?"

"Yes, but there's a balance. We don't want you to bleed so much, which is where the platelets come in, but blood clots are bad, too."

"So because of the Hickman, I'm bleeding a lot more than I'm supposed to. All the extra platelets will help stop the bleeding. But they might give me blood clots, too? So we put in something to make sure that doesn't happen?"

Yes," she says. The plunger is empty.

"But I'll still need more platelets if I keep bleeding? And more Heparin, too? Then maybe more platelets again?"

"Exactly," she says. "It's a balance."