ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

As I noted in my last entry, I have been very weak, and now we know why.  Last weekend (May 12-13) I started having pretty bad abdominal cramps plus some nausea.  This went on into the beginning of the week, but at times wasn’t as bad.  Tuesday morning at about 4:30 a.m., I awakened Daryl and said that we were going to Emergency as I had been up and down all night feeling terrible.

One of the first things they did was test my blood and found that my hemoglobin was dangerously low.  Thus, I was admitted to the hospital and given two units of blood.    They felt it was too low to be caused by the chemotherapy, which led to my having a colonoscopy and an upper GI scope to find out if there was internal bleeding causing the low hemoglobin. The tests did indicate there was some ulceration and inflammation in the bowl resulting in internal bleeding.  Therefore, they have had me discontinue the Lovenox shots to thin my blood which I have been giving myself daily for months.  I am not unhappy about that.

The next step was to place an Inferior Vena Cava Filter to prevent any blood clots from my lower extremities migrating to my heart and lungs.  I am also on some medication to help heal the inflammation.  The IVC Filter was placed by a radiologist going through my jugular vein in my neck with a catheter.  It was about a 40 minute procedure.

I came home on Friday, feeling much better.  I actually had the energy to mop my floors and do the wash on Saturday.  Daryl would have objected, but he was at the temple officiating at some sealing sessions. 

Our prayers are often answered differently than what we are asking for.  I feel blessed at this point that I ended up going to the hospital to discover things that needed to be taken care of.  Hopefully, I am learning to be more patient.

The image is the IVC Filter which sits in my vein a couple of inches above my navel.  It is much smaller than the picture.  The medical field is amazing.