B
BostonsJ
Guest
I could not escape from work today I had some major pending meetings that I got thrown into. Work has been wonderful to me and will give me time when Mike comes home, so today although I wanted to talk to his doctors for answers, I just could not. And unfortunately for families this is the time of year when we can't keep up.
I called Mike this morning and was kinda stern with him. I explained that he needed to be more proactive in his medical care and to ask questions, demand answers and to let the doctors know he was to be informed. He said he would. In a way I think he is a little bit afraid to know after the cancer scare and heart attack. But after talking with him, he agreed we need answers.
The cardiologist came in first. Mike asked him what his condition was and why his legs are swollen. Now this is the first time I have heard this.... Mike still has clots lodged in the right side of his heart which are causing him to be in right sided heart failure. I could swear, and it was 3am on Friday morning so I could be wrong, but I thought I was told they had passed and left a valve partially open. Now I am hearing that he has blood clots still in the heart and there is nothing they can do to dissolve those, they need to dissapate on their own. The coumadin and the heparin stop new clots from forming but according to the cardiologist won't dissolve the clots they will eventually absorb back into the system but we hope they are small since these are above the filter or screen whatever they call it. The swelling is an indication the doctor told him of the heart working so hard on the right side. He believes the kidney and liver values are being thrown by the heart failure. So,,,, the doc said when his swelling goes down in your legs, it will be a good indicator that the heart has pushed those clots out effectively.****** And hopefully safely. And you are not going anywhere until that happens, (in case they go to the lungs or worse)......, he is in need of constant monitoring. There is only one clot buster drug and Mike can not take it because of his heart procedure. It could kill him it is called TPA. His potassium and several other factors are off so now he has another IV to keep those values up. Pills were not working. His blood is drawn 4 times a day and adjustments are being made to his meds according to those values. Lasix is being administered but it cannot be administered in greater doses than what he is getting because it is too risky.
The pulmonologist came in and said that they had sent Mike's blood to 3 labs to have some test to determine if he by family history is predisposed to clotting problems. Two laboratories came back and conclusively ruled no. So now they are still scratching their heads about why he is clotting so much.........they don't know. His heparin and his coumadin are now being increased. At this point the doctor knows he needs more, they don't know why, but they also want him to be in the hospital for the every 6 hour blood testing to ensure nothing goes goofy with it again. ,,,,,,, they are watching this closely to figure out what his dose needs to be.....so that doctor said I hope you are comfortable, you are with us for a while. He told Mike anyone else would have been sent home yesterday but not you. The doctor said do you realize how many people you scared when you arrived at this hospital? Mike said well I know I was pretty scared I thought I was going to die. The doctor said well we did also, you were in complete shut down, you are lucky to be alive and now........until we figure this out, it is baby steps..... and you will not be released until we are sure you won't do this again! So while Mike didn't want the laptop before, now he needs something to do and I will stop at home instead of going straight there, and bring it to him tonight. I had hopes for this weekend but I am also relieved that they are not shoving him out the door until he is totally stable. Oh yeah the potassium levels were way too low so they now have it IV line of their own. Good grief this is a constant tweaking which is why he has to be in the hospital until he is leveled out.
This all that is known and I'm sure we will not know more until maybe tomorrow, so I thought I'd take a minute to check in early with a report.
Thanks to all of you for your support and kindness.
I called Mike this morning and was kinda stern with him. I explained that he needed to be more proactive in his medical care and to ask questions, demand answers and to let the doctors know he was to be informed. He said he would. In a way I think he is a little bit afraid to know after the cancer scare and heart attack. But after talking with him, he agreed we need answers.
The cardiologist came in first. Mike asked him what his condition was and why his legs are swollen. Now this is the first time I have heard this.... Mike still has clots lodged in the right side of his heart which are causing him to be in right sided heart failure. I could swear, and it was 3am on Friday morning so I could be wrong, but I thought I was told they had passed and left a valve partially open. Now I am hearing that he has blood clots still in the heart and there is nothing they can do to dissolve those, they need to dissapate on their own. The coumadin and the heparin stop new clots from forming but according to the cardiologist won't dissolve the clots they will eventually absorb back into the system but we hope they are small since these are above the filter or screen whatever they call it. The swelling is an indication the doctor told him of the heart working so hard on the right side. He believes the kidney and liver values are being thrown by the heart failure. So,,,, the doc said when his swelling goes down in your legs, it will be a good indicator that the heart has pushed those clots out effectively.****** And hopefully safely. And you are not going anywhere until that happens, (in case they go to the lungs or worse)......, he is in need of constant monitoring. There is only one clot buster drug and Mike can not take it because of his heart procedure. It could kill him it is called TPA. His potassium and several other factors are off so now he has another IV to keep those values up. Pills were not working. His blood is drawn 4 times a day and adjustments are being made to his meds according to those values. Lasix is being administered but it cannot be administered in greater doses than what he is getting because it is too risky.
The pulmonologist came in and said that they had sent Mike's blood to 3 labs to have some test to determine if he by family history is predisposed to clotting problems. Two laboratories came back and conclusively ruled no. So now they are still scratching their heads about why he is clotting so much.........they don't know. His heparin and his coumadin are now being increased. At this point the doctor knows he needs more, they don't know why, but they also want him to be in the hospital for the every 6 hour blood testing to ensure nothing goes goofy with it again. ,,,,,,, they are watching this closely to figure out what his dose needs to be.....so that doctor said I hope you are comfortable, you are with us for a while. He told Mike anyone else would have been sent home yesterday but not you. The doctor said do you realize how many people you scared when you arrived at this hospital? Mike said well I know I was pretty scared I thought I was going to die. The doctor said well we did also, you were in complete shut down, you are lucky to be alive and now........until we figure this out, it is baby steps..... and you will not be released until we are sure you won't do this again! So while Mike didn't want the laptop before, now he needs something to do and I will stop at home instead of going straight there, and bring it to him tonight. I had hopes for this weekend but I am also relieved that they are not shoving him out the door until he is totally stable. Oh yeah the potassium levels were way too low so they now have it IV line of their own. Good grief this is a constant tweaking which is why he has to be in the hospital until he is leveled out.
This all that is known and I'm sure we will not know more until maybe tomorrow, so I thought I'd take a minute to check in early with a report.
Thanks to all of you for your support and kindness.
One of the reasons - if not THE reason - his potassium levels are down is because of the high doses of lasix he's receiving. It's a very powerful diuretic, but not of the potassium-sparing family.