The story continued...
*** Addition to Vein Pain: Part 1- I forgot to thank the wonderful nurses I had in the hospital that first night. You know who you are. Thank you so much for your comfort and care!
SaturdayAfter getting out of the hospital on Friday, I went home to my house in SE Portland. The next morning, my loving and worried mother came up to take me to the doctor appointment. They wouldn't let me out of the hospital the night before without a follow up appointment scheduled the next day, so I had found a doctor on the
internet and scheduled an appointment.
As my mom and I walked up to the clinic, I noticed that the sign for the office was hand done and turning black. The front doors said "WE DELIVER BABIES" on a vinyl sign that made me think of some kind of FedEx message. In the waiting room was a large display recounting the benefits of a medical procedure that could make my eye lashes longer. As I limped on the crutches up to the counter, the sign on the desk told me that
Botox was right for me. The poster on the back wall discussed losing weight the "medical way." That gives you an idea of how my appointment went. Needless to say, we wanted to find a new doctor to help with the blood clot problem, but it had to wait until after the weekend.
Exhausted and in pain, my mother
whisked me off to my hometown to spend the weekend with both of my parents. It was wonderful to be with them and be taken care of. My father helped me move from room to room and joked that he didn't get to carry me like that since I was three. My mother, as always, tried to feed me enough food to fill an army.
MondayThe weekend ended, and my soon-to-be mother-in-law, Claudia, was worried about me. She made some phone calls to the head of vascular surgery in her hospital. I'm so grateful that she did.
The pain had increased, and I was wondering what to do. The vascular doc looked at my file and called Claudia back. I was to get into the hospital NOW. Leave Corvallis now and get there ASAP. I was too young. This was not normal. I needed a procedure.
We arrived, and the doctor quickly explained that he thought I had a rare narrowing of the vein above my left leg. He said he sees it sometimes in women in the twenties, and then he excitedly explained how he wanted to fix it. It was good to see that he got excited about helping with these kinds of things but kind of funny watching someone be so excited about cutting into me. Yet, Matt, my mom, and I all felt really good finally being with a specialist. Thank You, Lord!
My blood was way too thin (because of too much medication from the previous hospital), so we waited until the next morning to do the procedure. One more night in the hospital...
Tuesday8:30am came, and it was time to hit the
cath lab. The doctor put an incision in my knee and put a catheter in my vein, up through my blood clot, into my abdomen. I had to lay flat for 24 hours while the catheter gave off ultrasound and seeped medication to break up the clot. Holding still for 24 hours, head always on the pillow, no sitting up, no moving of my leg, needles in every limp, in an intensive care unit... rough.
Again, the nurses were amazing. Matt was there through almost all of it, reading to me, and just watching me fade in and out of my highly drugged state. I learned about new kinds of pain that day and a lot more about pain medication. But that's another story. I'm glad we did it, but I don't want to do it again!
Wednesday8:00am- back to the
cath lab. They took out the catheter, scrubbed my vein with their angiojet, and worked their angioplasty to open up the vein again. While they got almost all of the mega clot out, my vein would not stay open. With my age, they decided that it was best to keep me on blood thinners and allow my body to grow new veins around the area to fix itself. More surgery to the area would not be beneficial in the end.
The recovery was a little rough that day as the pain meds wore off and I adjusted to walking again. But Matt and I kept thinking it was one day closer to being out of there. Our doctor was there early in the morning and late at night each day to check on us. The doctors explained everything to Matt, so he could remember what was done a lot better than I could with all the meds I was on. We're so grateful for all their time!
ThursdayAfter an ultrasound showing that most of the clot was gone (but not all of it), I packed up and headed out before noon. Matt had set up my room just right for recovery. So wonderful!
The Last WeekThe last week of recovery has been slow, but good. I haven't needed the heavy duty pain meds, since I came home, even though I have them. It feels like the clot is gone, but now I just have inflamation, muscle pain, bruising and weakness. So much less than the sharp vein pain from before.
We are figuring out the medication routine, and it is making more and more sense. We haven't used the wheelchair in a few days, and I drove today! "Baby steps" is what Matt keeps telling me. I still over-do some days, but I'm getting better! I think I can be on my feet for at least 30 minutes just fine right now.
So Grateful- For a God who never leaves us, who bore more pain than I could ever imagine to reconcile me to Himself, who sovereignly rules all things, even broken bodies, for our good and for His glory, who uses us in His plan even when we feel completely out of control
- For a fiance who is perseverant in his love like Jesus, even when I'm a mess and am broken
- For modern medicine
- For a mother-in-law who takes action to take care of me
- For parents who made sure I was on health insurance and who are always quick to show me love sacrificially
- For doctors and nurses who really care
- For roommates who take care of me
- For friends who bring us food
- For friends and family who pray and send loving notes
- For a job that is still waiting for me
