Blood Clot

The winter semester I was surprised to find my leg was sore. I tried to walk it out and tried to stretch it out. A couple of days later I was trying to shave my legs and found when I put my weight on right leg it got really swollen and turned purple. For some reason I had it put in my head that I had a blood clot (I don't know why I knew this except for inspiration, because I thought a blood clot and a clogged artery were the same thing and didn't know anything about either of them). I didn't want to go to the emergency room, so we went to an instacare center. The instacare center said they couldn't do anything and sent me to the emergency room.

At the hospital they took me and did an ultrasound type thing on my right leg. The technician was super confused because she saw all these veins without blood in them, she decided that I had an extra vein system in my leg that wasn't being used and she couldn't find the normal veins. The doctor said that I had a blood clot in my leg called a DVT. I said great give me some pills and I will go home. He said I couldn't go home because those kinds of blood clots are dangerous because they will break off and head to the lungs. I had some already in my lungs (I can't remember how they knew that though, if they heard me breathing funny, or if they looked at my lung somehow). Anyway he said I would have to stay in the hospital for a day until my blood started to thin to make sure I would be okay. Then a nurse came in and gave me a shot of Lovenox in my stomach.

I was super upset about being admitted to the hospital I had it in my head that I would be going home that afternoon. I had been at the hospital all day and that was enough for me. Brian went home and got some stuff and stayed the night with me. Poor guy slept in a bad recliner every night he stayed at the hospital. I was on orders not to get out of bed except to use the bathroom, and I had to beg for that concession. They were worried that me moving around would dislodge the blood clot and send it to my lungs. My parents were also in and out of the hospital and brought us better food than hospital food.

The next day the doctor came in and said that there was a new procedure that they could do where they would go in and put a filter in my vein to protect my lungs, and then break up the blood clot. He said it was better on the vein and the filter would eliminate the risk of the blood clot hitting my lungs. He said it would make me stay in the hospital a little longer. After I talked to Brian we decided to do it. They did it the next day.

They put me under conscious sedation and gave me some painkillers, and they also gave me some medicine to make me not get sick from the painkillers, the last medicine also made the painkillers work better. Then they put a hole in the underside of my knee and drilled out as much of the clot as they could. Then they put a catheter in my leg and put heavy duty blood thinners onto the rest of the clot. The catheter would hurt whenever I moved my leg, or whenever I was moved. But as long as I laid still it was okay. They also put a giant IV thing in a vein in my neck. It allowed them to put in all the medicine they wanted without having to move IVs.

They had not let me eat anything the day before because of the procedure. They planned on taking the catheter and the neck IV thing out the next day. So they didn't let me eat again. Well they let me have liquids, Jello, bad chicken broth and juice. I was also put in ICU because there wasn't enough beds in the intermediate unit for me. Brian couldn't stay the night with me while I was there, but he stayed until 10:00 at night and was back at 6:00 the next morning.

The next day they went to remove the catheter. They found the clot was still there too much to take it out, so they sent me back. Until this point they had only been giving me a half dose of painkillers, but they moved me around too much too fast, and I felt totally out of control (I wanted them to wait just a minute before moving me around all the time, but they were in a hurry to get all the moving and pain over with), so when I got back to my room I got a full dose of medicine and slept for a while. When I woke up there was still more than 24 hours before they were going to take the catheter out, so I got to eat a real meal. You aren't supposed to bring food into ICU, but Brian was able to sneak me in some real food. It was wonderful to eat before another 24 hours of liquid diet.

The next day they took the catheter out and sent me back to a normal room. I was going home the day after! I had been there since Sunday morning and finally on Friday I would be going home. Brian was able to stay the night with me again, which even though the chair he slept in was uncomfortable, he slept better there then he did at home alone. The next day Brian had to go back to school and so my mom came to help me get checked out. While we were waiting for the doctor to come say I could go home my Junior Core group came in and helped me know what I needed to do to get caught up.

When I was finally released they gave me a pass to go get a handicap parking pass for a few weeks while I recovered. My mom drove me from the hospital to the pharmacy where we got more Lovenox and some Warfarin. I had to be on the Lovenox until the Warfarin kicked in. I was on the Warfarin for 6 months, and my body had a hard time regulating it so I had to go in weekly (most people go in monthly) almost the entire 6 months to make sure my blood was in between the 2 to 3 range for thinness. (1 is normal consistency). I got as high as 5 a couple of times, I swear I got more sensitive to that stuff as I went along.

After we went to the pharmacy we went to the DMV to get the handicap parking pass. At that point I was exhausted and looked awful so the lady at the DMV decided I was worse than the doctors thought and gave me a couple extra months usage with the pass. I think I only parked in an actual handicapped spot once or twice and that was the next week to go get the filter removed from my vein. But I did park in professors parking the whole time which was wonderful.

I don't have any adverse effects for the clot now. They decided I got the clot because I was on the birth control pill and they diagnosed me with Factor Five Lieden (the hormones and Factor 5 greatly increase the risk of blood clots), so I am not allowed to take it anymore, and I have to take daily shots of Lovenox when I am pregnant. I also have to be careful on long trips and make sure I move around enough and sometimes I take a baby aspirin to be safe. But other than that I am good.