The most important question was determining why I was losing blood and how. I had an early colonoscopy (I wasn’t due for one for another year) done by my gastroenterologist. No sign of bleeding in the gut; no sign that bleeding could be because of my hiatal hernia. The oncologist found no signs of malignancy in lab readings. An ultrasound of my heart showed it to be in excellent condition. We were left guessing as to where this slow leak of blood was occurring. There are less common reasons that my hematologist and I will explore.
Meantime, my family and I are still angry that I was told by two physicians that my shortness of breath and fatigue were the result of long Covid. To be sure, my GP ran the regular blood panels every 6 months when I went in for wellness checks; the hemoglobin levels were fine. So there is the mystery. But the pulmonologist I originally saw had quickly labeled me as having COPD; my new pulmonologist (I will never go back to the first one) told me that he had checked that doctor’s file on me and that if I do have COPD, it is at a trivial level. (I thought so myself; I showed no overt signs of COPD.)
So…I did not die. I feel now, a week after my hospital stay, fairly normal and am back to writing and editing. Time and doctor visits will tell where that years-long slow leak and breathlessness came from.