A new adventure started this week. For the last month, I noticed some swelling in my left leg from the knee to the ankle at the end of each day. After a good night's sleep, it would return to nearly normal. I've had a chronic issue with circulation for years in this leg and take daily penicillin to keep it under control. I got into my general practitioner yesterday after calling for an appointment Wednesday. As an aside, to you younger readers, make a point of living until you're 65. After you're on Medicare, you get immediate attention. I used to wait a month for them to get me in if I wasn't in the middle of dying. I arrived yesterday afternoon and checked in with the desk. I sat in the waiting area and looked at my paperwork and discovered I was not 70 year old Dave DeVore anymore but had become an 86 year old woman named Hilda with severe back pain. All of the ladies at the check-in counter got a big kick out it when I announced that I was not female nor 86 years old!
I told my doctor about my bout of Covid in early June in Kenya and he thought the swelling might have been a result of the long flights and my age catching up to me. But I pointed out the swelling didn't start up for more than a month after I returned, so it got him thinking about other possible causes. Anyway, after examining the leg, my doctor prescribed a thigh high compression stocking and had me get some blood work. The phlebotomist agreed I was not 86 and drew the blood. My doc also set me up with an ultrasound for today to look for clots, just in case. I had a really cool lab tech, Manuel. He began running the test, probing the major veins from the top of my leg to the ankle. I asked him if while he was at it could he check to see if I'm pregnant or not. He got a big kick out of my political incorrectness. When he got to the knee area he said "Uh oh!" This is something you don't want to hear from your brain surgeon, your computer guy or a lab tech during an exam. He just said he had found clotting and when he was done told me to stay in the waiting room until my doctor could be contacted with the results. I thought it was a sure thing that my next stop would be the hospital.
My doctor instructed the lab to send me home and while I was on the expressway, he called me. He explained that the situation is serious enough that he wanted me to come in for blood work right away and to start a sample pack of Xarelto, the latest blood thinner that doesn't cause bleeding ulcers quite like Coumadin was known for. He stressed that the worst case scenario is a blood clot breaks away and travels to the lungs with deadly results, so he had my full attention. He also told me I needed a lot of blood tests because once I was on the medication the tests wouldn't give good results and he had several scenarios to test for. I wolfed down some lunch and headed back downtown. I told the check-in staff that I still wasn't an 86 year old woman. They will definitely remember me from now on! I got the same tech to do my bloodwork and she decided to work on the other arm. She couldn't believe the number of tests on the lab order and had to look up codes on the computer for some of them. One of her co-workers stepped in and helped with the codes and the labeling of the vials that would contain each set of tests. It took about 10 minutes to get sorted out. After all was said and done, there were 17 vials of blood. I asked for a glass of orange juice and they gave me a juice pack. I was worried I might get a little woozy on the way back to my truck. I thanked the lab folks and said I felt I had been drained by a vampire!
I expect I'll get results of the blood work either tomorrow or Monday and know what other treatment options are called for. If all remains as it is now, I should be on the meds for about 3 months. It will keep more clots from forming and my body will dissolve the ones that are already there through natural processes.
Please keep me in your prayers for healing. I feel fine and am in no pain, so hopefully this will be just another bump in the road. After having kidney stones removed, a hip replacement and prostate cancer treated with radiation, I was really hoping for 5 years or more of things being boring. I guess my plan is not the real one!
No comments:
Post a Comment