Monday surgery.......and the rest of the story.

Nurse Dawn

Last I reported, I was scheduled for a surgery on my catheter and a blood clot that was growing in the atrium of my heart.

That was yesterday, Monday, and all went well. I wasn't completely out, but they kept me to the point of not caring too much. They could not remove the clot because it was chronic (meaning old and hard) and stuck to the wall of the vena cava, so they put in a metal stent to keep the vein open. I think I will have to be hand searched now when going through security.  There was not any pain, but there was a bit of tugging and pulling. I have some bandages on my neck, bruises on my elbows where the guy was kneeling when he pulled out the old catheter, and it is a little sore. We got home about 2:30, and I went straight to bed.

The excitement started when I got up to go to the bathroom. I have never seen as much blood as was in my toilet.... even on TV! I designed a science experiment to determine where it was coming from (my bladder), and, after calling the doctor, Jo and I headed back to the emergency room. By this time I am nauseated and throwing up. My doctor called ahead, and we got into a room at the emergency department pretty quickly. I don't know if you have ever been to the emergency department at Barnes, but it is a tough place. Donn and Buff met us there, and God bless them.  Donn stayed the whole time!

They started running tests, and I kept throwing up and passing what seemed like buckets of blood. By about 10 they figured out that I had what my nurse, Dawn, called, "the mother of all bladder infections."  That was part of the blood, but I also had hemolysis, a reaction to the anti clotting agent TPA that they had used trying to bust up the clot earlier that day. And I was dehydrated besides and still nauseated. So they started IV antibiotics and fluids, I was pronounced better, and we were home by midnight.

So, all is well. I slept all day, and I think Jo was as tired as I was. We finished some lentil soup, a corporeal work of mercy from before, and tonight I feel almost human again. WOW!
I am sending a photo of Dawn after she successfully healed me!

XO, everybody. I hope there is nothing to write for a little while! 

Our first spring salad!