Blood clots - I have heard the words for years, but never had any close experience with them until now!! It is hard to separate the facts from the fiction, but right now I am dealing with blood clots big time!
It all started last week when I was in the bathtub one evening and noticed this red area on my leg - at the side and underneath my left knee. I thought maybe it was something left over from the bad fall I had in the dining room several months ago when I tripped on the carpet and fell hard against the table and produced a painful hamstring in that left leg. And we did not think anything of it until the next evening when the red area was bigger and there was a sort of knot you could feel inside. I mentioned it again to Dad as I got out of the tub and then went to the bedroom to get dressed for the night.
When I came out of the room, Dad ordered - "Get dressed - we are going to the ER, that has to be a blood clot and there is no time to waste." While I was getting ready for bed he was checking blood clots on the internet and saw the danger these can be if not treated properly. And so off to the hospital ER we went. I was put on medication right away, given a room and told to keep my leg up and to rest. I don't really have a lot of clear memories of those first hours in the ER as the meds they put in me caused confusion in my mind. It was like I was hallucinating and not seeing clearly the room where I was. The bed was not comfortable. I was hooked up to a big machine, attached to my hand where the drip was going in. I had seen a doctor, the nurses were taking care of me. And I felt like I was in another world. Kind of scary really as I had lost track of my local reality.
They changed my room to another floor and again I wakened with confusion as to where I was now. They had taken a lot of blood and some of my counts were very low. The in-hospital doctor was extremely nice, came around and took time, answered our questions and started me on the meds. He said I should be there in the hospital for five days and I was not looking forward to that! But the next morning when he came in, he had been amazed at how my blood counts had gone up and said that he could send me home the next day. This was also based on the fact that Dad is a "doctor" and gives shots so I could stay on my medication. That was excellent news.
The one set of shots has to go in the fatty part of the stomach and go through a very fine needy, so fine in fact that I do not feel the needle go in when Dad does the shot - it just burns for a few seconds when the meds get inside. So we are safely ensconced at home and that is best for me. Although I have never been so well cared for in a hospital than I was this time. The doctors and nurses were so kind and friendly. I had a decent bed. I just had to be careful how I lay on the bed as these tubes were in me all the time. The nurses were also great and I had a number of friends come to visit from church and the neighborhood here. Plus Dad stayed with me during the daytime. So I was well cossetted!
My biggest hurdle is that I have to stay off my feet, with the legs elevated until all this medicine does its work and dissolves the clots - evidently one large clot in the groin and some smaller ones. This afternoon I go again to the hospital to have a check with the cumadin doctor at the clinic. I may have to be on cummadin for the rest of my life they tell me. Maybe I will get more info this afternoon. At any rate, this was a totally unexpected turn of events in my life, but I am being well cared for and peaceful as I look to the Lord to care for me. He it is who ordains our days and our ways and I can rest in that! Appreciate all the phone calls and emails from all my family - they make my day. And I appreciate so much Dad and his loving care for me. Poor thing, this has happened too often in his life!!
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