Felt like having a little rant over some stuff that's been going on, so here goes. As some of you may or may not know... I had some pretty major surgery about a month ago (I won't go into details). Anyhow the surgery itself went to plan as far as I know. I did encounter some issues with the anaesthetics (as is only to be expected with my grumpy lungs). This meant I had to spend a couple of nights in ITU. This is nothing major and is quite a common occurrence for me. Unfortunately I went on to have further issues when I was put on a PCA for pain control. I think the settings were too high and my body didn't like it. I subsequently started having hallucinations which were nothing short of terrifying. I genuinely believed I had died during the operation and was in some kind of limbo. I can not even begin to describe the terror I felt. In a last ditch attempt to 'survive' I made a panicked called to Sean at 3am (who was away on work in Belgium) who got in touch with my parents. They drove in at ridiculous O'clock and calmed me down. Once they'd arrived I promptly relaxed and fell asleep. Only to wake up hours later feeling completely 'with it' and embarrassed about the previous nights drama. I was worried I was losing it, but all the doctors and nurses said that it's a common problem with Patient Controlled Analgesia and the concoction of drugs that are in the syringe driver can cause all sorts of horrors to feel like reality. Phew - still got my wits about me for a while yet then!
I stayed in for a few more days. And though I didn't really feel up to being discharged (still struggling with breathlessness and requiring oxygen and strong pain relief), I went home on the surgeons advice.. He was keen for me not to risk developing any more chest infections or hospital bugs. Plus I have oxygen at home so that wasn't insurmountable.
2 days later I still wasn't feeling any better. I saw my GP who I assumed would probably give me some antibiotics for what felt like a chest infection and advise the usual increase in steroids and nebs. But instead she saw my sats were 84% (I wasn't aware they were quite that low) and my racing pulse, and sent me to hospital for bloods and x rays. Turned out my bloods came back pos+ for a clot which didn't guarantee I had one but at the same time didn't rule it out. So it required further investigation. I'd only packed enough for one night as I didn't predict any of this would unfold. But the next day I went for a CT of my chest and a Doppler (ultrasound of the blood flow) of my leg. These, together detected a large clot in my right iliac vein and a pulmonary embolus in my lung (the cause of all the breathlessness and low oxygen levels!). To cut a long story short I spent the week in hospital being dosed with warfarin and Denzaparin and trying to get my breathlessness under control. I finally came home on injections in my belly (which took some getting used to!).
I've been going to Co-agulation clinic to get my blood tested weekly. Thankfully my local clinic measures it with a finger prick test so I don't have to have a million butchered attempts at drawing it from my non existent veins. All's been going well and I'm getting used to the new routine. That was, until a few days ago when then breathlessness and pain started up again. I held off on seeking advice as didn't need any more hassle from it all to be honest and as ever assumed things were 'probably fine' and I was just over thinking it. But when they tested my blood this morning at clinic, it was the thickest it's been yet. I mentioned in passing that the pain had started again. And she immediately made an appointment for me to see the GP today (hmph... Grrrr!). So off I trundled. And low and behold, the GP sent me into hospital for more tests for further clotting. So after 7 hours in the acute medical unit, I've finally escaped with another 10 days of jabs in the belly to break down another PE in my lung. I'm just glad that I didn't have to stay in all honesty.
I won't lie, I'm pissed off. I can handle my other health issues. I know when things aren't right and can generally taper my own medication to what's needed day to day. And I know if something's really not right that I can go into hospital for IVs etc. But this clotting issue is an unknown entity for me that I'm really not comfortable with. My body doesn't tell me when to worry and when not to with this. I guess I'm still learning to read the signals. I don't want to be on lifelong warfarin and injections. Nor does anyone. I shouldn't complain, diabetics inject every day and don't moan. I just need time to adjust I guess.
Anyway... Here's to the next 10 days of a bruised belly and no cranberry juice, grapefruit or alcohol (none of which are allowed in this regime). Wish me luck.
Thanks for reading!
In lighter news, I am now the proud owner of some very cool slippers :)
