Tuesday April 25-28, 2016
Oi vey…what a week, culminating in my presence here in a hospital bed at St Clare Hospital in Lakewood with a chest full of Pulmonary Embolisms. Yes, yes, and if I live ‘til 8 tonight (April 26) I’ll probably live to 80. I’m on a serious “blood thinner” (misnomer) to stabilize the PEs and slowly dissolve the DVT (deep vein thrombosis—blood clot) in my left leg. The clot in the left leg extends from my knee to my ankle.
I’ve had a swollen left leg for a while now, but otherwise I was completely asymptomatic for a blood clot: no pain, no redness, nothing. My sister, who is an old pro at blood clots (DVTs), gave me the once over, looking for the usual signs of a DVT and felt it wasn’t that, so I never thought much more about it, figuring it was my sedentary lifestyle that was causing my leg to swell by the end of every work day…
Last Wednesday I went for my usual walk and felt like I was climbing Mt Rainier instead of enjoying a relatively benign journey, so I thought, “Partially collapsed lung?” I’d had one of those before and this is more or less what that felt like.
I wasn’t any better by Friday, so I went to Urgent Care on Canyon Road for an x-ray of my chest and an EKG. The chest x-ray came back normal and the EKG was a little wocka wocka (typical for me), but nothing onerous, so they suggested I get an appointment with my regular doctor and have her get specialists to look into it further, so I called and made an appointment for May 3rd.
Over the weekend I started feeling better, shortness-of-breath-wise, and figured I was on the mend. But then I remembered the swollen leg and mentioned it to Mary Jo Robinson on Monday (my doctor friend) and she said, “OMG! Call your doctor and get sent to the ER right now!” I said, “Seriously?!” She said, “Yes!”
So I called my doctor, explained the Friday test results to her nurse, and then told her about the swollen left leg. The nurse put me on hold, talked to my doctor, and then came back and said, “Yes, go directly to ER and let’s get a blood clot/DVT ruled out right away. If it isn’t that, you’ll probably be there about three hours.”
So off I went, expecting to rule out a DVT. They found a DVT from knee to ankle and then ran a CT scan. It showed multiple pulmonary embolisms in both lungs, a few of them large. So I was admitted to the hospital immediately.
They started me on a serious heparin regimen–painless shots in my belly twice a day. That night the doctor came in to inform me that I was at seriously high risk for cardiac arrest if one of the embolisms broke loose and went into my heart, so they had me on complete bed rest (I couldn’t even get up to use the bathroom; I got a bedside commode). She asked me if I had Advance Directives in order (yes) and who had them. Then she asked if I wanted Code or No Code (resuscitation or DNR.)!!! THAT was seriously concerning! I knew I was at serious risk, asked to answer a question like that!
The doctor who saw me the next day at about noon let me know that until eight PM rolled around that night, I remained at extremely high risk of a blood clot breaking free and killing me, but that if I made it to eight, enough of the blood thinning agent would be in my system to help offset a catastrophic result like that.
So I waited…. told my family… they came by and sat with me for a while… Jamie wanted to stay to eight to make sure I made it, but Phil had an early flight so they left at 7:10. I called Jamie at eight to relieve her mind. Jackie called me at 8:20 to ascertain my status before putting herself to bed for the night. She called Laurel this morning to let her know what was up, so she called me this morning to wish me well and visit for a while by phone.
Sooo…. eight had rolled around and I was still here. Whooopie! So I let the word go forth on Facebook that I was in the hospital and why. Messages flooded in here: prayers, good thoughts, OMG! It was really heart-warming. (I got a preview of what it will be like when I do die!) People are rallying around me. One Facebook friend, Kathryn Sandford, sent me an African Violet plant with a get well soon card attached. (Here it is transplanted into my favorite planter.)
African Violet from Kathryn Sandford
The folks here are fabulous! Every last one of them that I’ve met. I stole Mom’s line and told them I’m being treated so well here that I’m thinking of becoming a hypochondriac… and I said they could quote me if they want to in marketing materials.
I got a shower this afternoon, thank God! I’m slated to be released tomorrow afternoon (Thursday) as long as everything continues to go according to plan. Lisa brought in her laptop so I can type this and transfer it over to my blog later…
This thing made me consider “What’s left undone that I still want to do?
Vote for Bernie Sanders
Get the DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal audio book out
Get Womb Man out
Do the Starkane convention in September
Write more books (perhaps a fictional one this time)
When I took a shower this afternoon my swollen left leg (less swollen now) got all blotchy and mottled in one area about the size of a fist, but as soon as I got back to bed, it faded away. I mentioned it to the nurse or care assistant in case it was significant. It hasn’t reoccurred upon standing.
May 8, 2016
When I got home, Cassandra Anthony-Lay sent me an edible get-well “bouquet):
What I learned is DO NOT WAIT TO REPORT A CHANGE WHEN YOUR BODY SHOWS SYMPTOMS YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN, EVEN IF THE SYMPTOM DOESN’T HURT. I COULD HAVE DIED BECAUSE I IGNORED THE SWOLLEN LEFT LEG.