dvt

Hi Stephanie......just keep your eyes wide open as i know you will. Honestly when my husband was in the hospital after a mild heart attack a year and a half ago he was on the drug Plavix..which is a long acting blood thinner...stays in the system 7 days. They determined he needed by-pass surgery and it was scheduled for that week...I told them he was on the PLavix....they ignored me....I told them to stop giving it to him...the nurses were afraid to call the doctors....the doctors would not answer my phone calls...the night before the surgery the surgeon comes in and i say..."See anything on that chart that would contraindicate surgery??? LIKE PLAVIX?.......OOPs!...surgery put off for a week...husband taken off Plavix...sent husband home. My husband did not make it through the surgery........nobody communicated with anyone else....my attempts were ignored. I knew better but I was to emotionally attached to use my brain and get him the heck out of Cinti. And he was at the "Premiere" Heart Hospital..says a lot about them.
Hope all goes well.......hugs Pat

Patricia, that's a great site....I added it to my favorites. OK, now I understand that what they will do is switch him to some faster-acting shots before the surgery. This morning his nurse called and said his levels were 2.2, so he could take the shots for two more days, take two pills each night, and have blood drawn on Monday.

Harry called this morning/afternoon, but Doran was still sleeping, so I took his number. I hope they get a chance to talk later today, but he's back to bed again. When he's depressed, he feels that's the best place for him. I hope he gets his fill pretty soon, and joins us in the bright Iowa sunlight soon.

Thanks for all the help and hints.

Stephany in Iowa

Thanks for all the news, seems you have had your hands full, the cup runeth over,
I think its great you get him out and about with him feeling so down, and who wouldn't poor guy!!! So glad all is getting better Stephanie,,,take care Ginger

Stephanie....Warfarin is Coumadin...Warfarin is the generic name. Lovenox also a blood thinner......Both are short acting. He's not on any other blood thinners is he like Plavix?.....Vitamin K foods are the ones that can make the levels fluctuate..its not necessary to eliminate them but to be consistent with them.
www.drgourmet.com/warfarin/index.shtml?gclid=CN3d1fHO2ZECFQ-HHgodk0xUWw
This gives a list of K foods.
Pat

Hello, all, from snowy Iowa, again. The temps actually hit double digits above zero today, but I hear there's another storm coming. Our snow scooper guy had to get his skid loader out on a flatbed, so he could lift up the snow that's been moved, to make room for more.

Maria...that's interesting about your nephrostomy. What was the reason? We have the reversal scheduled for March 12, and they plan to put him on Coumadin for a period before the operation, so that they can clear his blood of the Warfarin. As I understand it, then they can stop it fast enough to be able to do the surgery.

He talked to his oncologist today, and the doc said that his clot may be already dissolving, as he got treatment fast, and that the pain may go away soon. He is actually feeling much better today.

Sorry I haven't written for a while. It's been really hairy! When he got the diagnosis of DVT, he hit near rock bottom emotionally, as you can imagine. He felt that this is just more of a signal that all this is the beginning of the end of his life, and that it was just one more step down that road.

Things were going pretty well....he was going to finish chemo, I had signed us up for a landscaping class at a local community college, and he was almost looking forward to the surgery.

Then this happened, and he just lost it. I tried to make things as comfortable and calm as possible, but he really needed to just let it all out. His local docs are monitoring the levels daily, and they are going up. They even cut his Warfarin dosage tonight, because he's approaching the level they want, but he is still giving himself injections of Levonox (spelling?), until they get high enough.

His leg started feeling better, and I dragged him to the landscaping class, but he ended up walking out, and resting on a bench. I enjoyed myself immensely, and then we went home, arguing all the way.

He felt pretty good today, so we went to a jazz competition. I'm a Big Brother, and my Little was competing, and he has noone to support him unless I'm there. I'm really glad we went, because he didn't even have money for supper, and he did a great job.

Doran enjoyed the competition, and talking to all the people we knew, and then he got an emergency call during the competition, and he missed several songs, and then it was "Katy, bar the door." He was SO angry.

Anyway, I took him out to dinner....the first restaurant we wanted had closed, but luckily, a really good one was close and he was able to order just what he wanted....a thin crust pizza. We had a little talk on the way, and I made him promise to make the dinner pleasant.

And he did, except that, as you can imagine his luck, his pizza came and the mushrooms were tough. I think they were dried and had not been soaked long enough. I held my breath, but he just sent it back nicely, ate some of mine, and had his later. Then, he pulled the manager and the waitress aside, and told them how much he admired the way they handled it. What a guy!

And then he wanted to go shopping for a coat.

So, you'd think things were going well, right?

Wrong......

we got home, he started to get undressed, and found blood in his nephrostomy tube.

I didn't even bother to get undresssed. I just puttered around until he got ahold of a doc at the university. Luckily, they put him through to exactly the person he needed to speak with....who actually knew him and his case. He told us that the blood was common in cases like this, and that it would actually stop when his levels got to where they needed to be....that the tube was probably rubbing on his kidney, and causing some bleeding.

Whew....dodged that bullet! But you can see why he has a pesimistic outlook. I must irritate him even more than he can say, because I'm an optomist.

Anyway, tonight I suggested that maybe he and Harry could talk. For the first time, he agreed that it might be a good idea. This is progress, right?

Anyway, if Harry feels like talking, we'll get the two of them together.

So, here it is 11:00 pm, and I'm wired enough to need to write. I appreciate your patience, and your caring enough to PM me to see if I am alright.

We're OK, coping, and trying our best to get through this patch. Tomorrow he'll get another level drawn, and maybe he'll be close to where he needs to be. His doc doesn't think six months, maybe three months, but we'll just cross that bridge when we come to it. The only good news to come out of this was that his oncologist said that he was done with chemo anyway. He didn't get the last Gemzar, and the doc said that was OK, he would not really need to do any more. So, at least he and Harry finished at the same time....we just didn't know it!

So sorry about the long message, but I wanted to let you know that we are still alive and kicking. Still filing insurance papers. Still working at getting a good catheter supply. Thank goodness for the internet.

Now, I'm going to curl up with a heating pad and a good book. Talk to you later!

Stephany in Iowa

Stephany, Seems Iowa is really getting blasted this winter. You should get "THE GOOD DRIVING AWARD", as that only adds to the frustration. Sorry to hear you had to make the trip, but glad you made it safely. Hope things get better fast,and don't stay away so long I missed hearing from you !!! Ginger