Fun-a-day 4: Anemia

OK, so maybe anemia isn't so fun, but it can be fun to look at on a blood smear, and fun to paint with thread...

Anemia, is essentially a lack of red blood cells, or a disorder of them.  Sudden anemia can occur after a trauma, such as a car accident, major operation, or childbirth (which can be rather traumatic).  A sudden loss of blood really doesn't show up on a blood smear.  The hospital's instruments detect the blood loss in the CBC.  More commonly though, anemia takes a bit of time, because it's due to diet (as in iron deficiency), genetics (as in sickle cell anemia), or due to various other medical problems.

The most common anemia I saw was iron deficiency, which is very common in women, especially when they're pregnant.  It's something I myself have faced, so I thought I'd do a quilt block of what it looks like on the slide.

The red blood cells in iron deficiency anemia are smaller than normal (microcytic), and have less hemoglobin, so they are paler (hypochromic), and look like thin rings.  Instead of being nice equal sized, they can also start varying in size (anisocytosis), and shape (poikilocytosis - isn't that a FUN word?).

Stay tuned for tomorrow.  I think I'm going to do a "poik" block... all the different abnormal RCB shapes.

And it's Tuesday, so Quilt Story is having their fabric Tuesday link party.  Head over there for some inspiration and fun!

Shameless self-promotion....

It's totally against my nature to ask a favor like this, but I decided to enter a national sewing contest, sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens, "All People Quilt", to try to win a very nice ($2000-3000) sewing machine. I think a work station also comes with it. There are 4 quarterly contests, and the winner of each competes at the end for the final prize.

Well, the bag I made for the 3rd quarter made it to the top 10, and the winner is selected by public vote. So if you feel comfortable registering and revealing your info, please vote for my bag at this link: http://my.allpeoplequilt.com/app/voting/index.jsp?id=/templatedata/apq/voting/data/1282588730058.xml&mediaItemID=/sharemy/08162010/23128073

It's called "Becky's Bag", and it's blue and yellow. It's the only one shown sideways (not the picture I would have picked), but there's 5 more pictures in the "gallery section" that you can look at: http://my.allpeoplequilt.com/photos/quilts-and-more-quarterly-challenge-10/3/2145700019/?photoId=2142100045

You can vote one time per day until Aug 31st (tomorrow). Sorry for such late notice. I was on vacation and just found out over the week-end. I was frankly shocked that it was selected for the top 10, but also very excited!

Thanks for your help!!!