What a roller coaster we have been on. As I have posted before hubby had a knee replacement on Oct 30. Rehab was finished up around the 20th of Dec. Then on Christmas Eve I took him to ER and at first we weren't sure what was wrong but knew something was terribly wrong. He had complained of pain in the left side of his chest all day Sun and it got worse on Mon, (Xmas Eve) He was blaming it on running the leaf blower on Friday (actually sucking leaves with it) Thought he had over worked some muscles he hadn't been using. When he started getting real weak on Mon. I took him in. After alot of testing they found he had his small arteries in his lungs full of small blood clots plus a large one in the right pulmonary artery. Also had pneumonia down in that lower rt lobe. Straight to ICU!! What a shocker for us. He told me later he was afraid he would die. He was really miserable for the first 2 days plus he started running fever. Was on 3 different IV antibiotics and the blood thinner shots in belly. Got him on coumadin and he got better and came home on the 30th, Sat. Oh, and as an incidental they found he had gallstones. Probably had them for years. So he was improving at home till the next Sat. (which was last Sat) He got up in the night and couldn't bear weight on that leg. All day it got worse and knee was swollen. So at noon we headed back to ER. Took 8 hrs to get diagnosed and treated. He had a bleed into that knee. Had it aspirated and wrapped. He has to stay on the coumadin so he won't throw any more blood clots and this is one of the risks. Saw his ortho guy yesterday and he says it is OK and we are just taking it one day at a time. Will follow up with his Internist Thurs and see what the plans will be on the coumadin treatment. Took him to lunch today and his appetite is getting better.
You know when you sign those medical releases to have surgery you never really think anything will happen to YOU.
So how was your Christmas??
3 comments:
When you said coumadin my first thought was the knee surgery past and future. I figured any weak places in the new knee would start to bleed and they will have to look hard at any new surgery. That shit will thin the blood so much that it would seep like water. And he will be cold a lot, too. Damn this aging shit ain't for the faint of heart...or the spouses.
Thanks Coffeypot! You are so kind. But so right too. His INR so far is just below theoputic. A balancing act to not for more clots in the lungs and not bleed somewhere else. I will tell MY story another time.
So informative post, thanks to share.
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