Ugh!!

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

I had to get up today and drive to Harper to take my oral meds test. Not a big deal. I just had to prove that I could look up medications, check they were ok, and administer the meds without killing the patient. Honestly, I had absolutely no worries about it at all!!!! Until I got there, the girl in front of me was pacing because she wasnt' so sure she passed. She was told to wait in the hallway until they could check things out, I listened to her story and started to worry because I would have done exactly what she would have done!!! Then, I took my test. No problems, I passed, I'm done and now I can actually pass oral meds to my patients when I'm at clinical! Yeah!!!

But, I'm irritated with the school. You see, last week while I was in the hospital, I missed 1 class, 1 lab, and 2 clinical dates. This week, I also missed clinical, per doctors order. I had asked what I could do to make up the time so that I didn't get too far behind and such. All I was told was to stay up on my reading so that I didn't get behind there. So, today right before I started my exam, I was given a piece of paper with a make up assignment. To make up the 4 hour lab time I missed while in the hospital. I have to go in on my own time and watch 3 dvd's about patient communication. I then have to write a paper on what I watched, ok no big deal, except...it's due Monday!!! I also have a test Monday morning. I just wished they had given me a smidge more time to catch up....but....I'll just have to get it done. I'm also going to have to make up 12 hours of clinical time....at $30 each section, so $120 total. Trust me, it just doesn't pay to get sick and spend a week in the hospital. It's not worth the effort!!!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful night and the ghost's and goblins stay away!!!!

will it ever be right?

Went for blood work today, got a phone call about 2 hours ago. INR is 5.8!!! Way too high. They want me between 2 and 3! So, no coumadin tonight or tomorrow. More blood work on Thursday, which throws a little bit of a cramp in my style.

You see, since I'm on the road to recovery, I decided to head to Dan's Wednesday afternoon after my Medication test at school. Now, I have to delay that decision and head down a day later. Not too big of a deal, just less time with Dan. Oh well....we're used to it right? :)

Happy day to all of you!!!!

Success....and Health??/

To all of you who made it to the party for my parents this weekend, Thank you so much. Dawn did a wonderful job pulling it all together. I felt horrible, for I was stuck and there just wasn't much I could possibly do to help. I think we really got my parents, they truly weren't expecting the party. It was lots of fun, but by the end of the night, I was absolutely exhausted!!!!

As some of you know, I was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon around 1230. INR 3.25...too high!!! UGH!!! They were going to try to keep me, but, finally they decided that if they tried to get the numbers exact, I could be there for another week and that was just silly!!

So, they released me with a Coumadin dose of 7mg per day. I head back for another INR test tomorrow.

I had made appointments for wedding dress shopping and wasn't sure if I was actually going to make it because I was so tired. But, we did it. Mom, Dawn, Dan's Mom, Dan's Grandma and I headed out to House of Brides and Davids. I did find a gown I love, and I look really pretty in it :) Also, although it's early, we found a gorgeous dress for the girls...Dawnie tried it on and looked fabulous!!! Here's the catch....it's going out of style. Go figure!!! But, I figured that it's a very simple dress that should be easy to alter if needed. If all the girls like it....fabulous!!! If not, oh well, we start all over again, in the beginning of the year.

Headed back to school today. I tell you, I'm having a very hard time with this light duty stuff and trying to slow down. It's a tough recovery. I get winded walking from the car to the classroom, and I removed all the heavy books because I'm on light duty restrictions...no more then 15 pounds!!! I want to do more, but I get tired really easily. But next week I can go back full force. Funny isn't it? I never thought it would really hit me this hard. The doctor told me that my body had gone through a horrible stress and it would hit me even harder when I got home. That's true. I mean, I understood what a stress my body went through, but I didn't think it would be this tiring when I got home!!!

updates

Thursday's INR 1.6, biggest jump yet. Dr. Fischer says....I think perhaps you can go home tomorrow. Dr. Amin..."nope, perhaps Saturday!" So.....here I lay. Thursday's coumadin dose 9mg.

Saw a hemotologist on Thursday as well, the same one dad sees. He's running some tests, not all th e possible tests because I'm currently on anti-coagulants, so I could have skewed results. Point of the hemotologist is to see if there is a clotting disorder that may be to blame for these clots, more then just the birth control pill and smoking. Eitherway, both of those behaviors have stopped and will never occur again.

Friday....INR 2.1 YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still in hospital, Dr. Amin's pretty positive to get me out of here tomorrow morning. Some test results are back. I am negative for Factor V Leiden, and the lupus anticoagulants. That doesn't mean I don't have Lupus. They're still going to test for that. THere are a whole slew of blood tests out there being run, and I'll meet with the hemotologist sometime next week to discuss all the results. They'll run another test later for antithrombin III, this is a clotting disorder that my uncle suffers from, but they can't run it while I'm on heparin. So sometime next week they'll take care of it.

Thats it in a nutshell. I can't wait to get out of here.

INR 1.25, Coumadin dose tonight 7mg, hopes of getting out tomorrow...totally demolished.

Per Dr. Amin, pulmonologist, yesterday's pain and today's windedness, were/are the clots spasming. New funky bruise....to be watched, make sure it doesn't grow any larger. I know the heparin causes bleeding and bruising, but this bruise is in such a funny spot, I wasn't really sure what it was! He said normally 5 days on IV heparin...."but you're taking so long, perhaps 7-8 days for you!" Damn, I said. PTT levels stabilized, so my dose of Heparin is actually less. I'm on 1500 units/hour. I've been on 1600 from Sunday until early this morning.

They want the coumadin level to be abut 2.5 for 48 hours!!! So, Not only do I have to reach that level, I have to then maintain it for 48 hours! So If by chance of luck I manage to double the coumadin dose by tomorrow, I'll be out on Saturday.

I'm off work next week as well. School, the doc and I came to an agreement....I can attend lecture, but no clinicals. He wants me to not be sedentary, but to take it easy next week as well and go from there. He said, if I take it easy, I'll be a little less likely for re-occurance. So, I said...OK. I'll take next week off. My boss was totally cool and he said he'd work with me with coming off the 12 hour shifts, so....thats it in a nutshell.

not much for new news

Well, It's now Wednesday, I haven't yet see the pulmonologist or family practice docs today. They must all take Wednesdays off!!!

They had to change the Heparine dose again. They've lowered it this time, so therefore, I get more blood draws! Oh joy! They have to have two consecutive levels every six hours adjust the heparin level. Now I just have to wait and hope. My next draw will be around 730 this evening. Lets hope its the same at the 130 this afternoon draw. I have't heard what my INR was today, then again, I keep forgetting to ask!

Yesterday was a tough day. Around 230 in the afternoon, I had a very sharp pain in the right side of my chest and experienced SOB, the doctor happened to be there at that time. My ECG was normal, but my O2 saturation was low again and my blood pressure went up. So, they sent me for a third CT scan. The results of this scan showed no difference from Monday's scan, which showed approximately 70% of the clots were gone. So now my question is why aren't more of the clots dissappearing?? What is going on with my body??

Today, I found a very strange bruise with a lump on my upper left arm very near to my armpit. I informed the nurse, but havne't heard from the doc yet. I've been quite tired today and get worn out easily. I cleaned myself up and washed my hair, and was just pooped! I feel like I get winded easily. I've been taking my laps around the nurses station and just watching everything I'm doing. Today I've been attempting to study. I'm getting some reading done, but not enough. You would think the situation would be ideal, but it's really noisy, the staff keeps on coming in to ask more and more questions, and I'm drinking so much water in order to flush all the CT contrast dye out of my system in order to not have kidney problems, that I'm peeing all the time!!!! If I receive much more contrast, I'm going to be glowing like one of those glow necklaces you get at a carnival!!! My blood sugars have been pretty good, which is a good thing, at least one thing is starting to work in my favor!!!!

I've had lots of visitors and lots of love. There is no shortage of love and prayers which I am forever grateful for. Thanks everyone for your positive thoughts and I'm doing my best to get the hell out of here. I'm really miserable!!!

updates..(and a little whining!)

OK, had a repeat CT scan of the lungs tonight, per the nurse, the report said....significantly less clots notices. Now, I was actually discouraged by this because I had that TPA therapy, which was supposed to break the clots and my understanding was they ALL would be gone, not just some of them. Well, they're not. So, now I wait to hear what the pulmonologist has to say. Actually, I was crushed because I thought everything was going to work out perfectly and all the nasty clots would be gone. They also repeated the Echocardiogram, now, here they did find some improvements. I don't know what the exact measurements are supposed to be, but they were half of what they were on Saturday, which the tech said was they were now in the "normal ranges." So, that was good news. Also, my INR, which is a blood clotting ratio level, was tested again today. The doctor started me on Coumadin last night, I had a 5 mg pill. Dr. Fischer informed me that he wants to see my INR level somewhere between 2 and 3 before they can let me go home!! Today the nurse came in and informed me that my INR level wasn't even 1! So, once again it was discouraging news. They upped my Coumadin level to 7 mg tonight in hopes that the higher dosage would get me to the levels I need to be in. All in all, the tests don't seem to be heading in the directions that I want and need them to be in in order for me to go home sooner.

All in all, it was a very very emotional day for me. I think all the news hit me like a Mack truck this afternoon. I was extremely tired all day long, and cried at the drop of a hat. I think the fact that this was truly a "life-threatening" problem, hit me today. After I got the results of the CT, I just cried and cried and cried. Thank God Dan was here, he just sat and held me and let me cry. I then called my mom with the results I had and cried some more. I'm scared. I'm truly scared, I don't really know what to do anymore! I'm doing everything they tell me to do, and I guess I just hoped for faster results than I'm seeing. Please just keep me in your prayers. I'm hoping for some miracles and to be heading home by Thursday.

I'm fine....It's just an anxiety attack.....

WRONG!!!!! No, I was not suffering from sudden onset panic attacks, like I originally thought. It turns out I was really really sick. It started earlier this week. I had a cramp in my left leg. No redness, no swelling, no heat, and I was able to walk on it, all signs that it was just a cramp, literally. Not a clot as I thought. Then Tuesday afternoon, I was feeling a little strange, I felt tachycardic (fast heart rate) and like I couldn't expand my lungs fully. Not short of breath so much, just like I couldn't get a full breath. But, those symptoms went away and I was feeling better. So, I figured I'm beginning to suffer from anxiety attacks. The stress was getting to me.

Saturday night I headed off to work and while I was walking to my car all of about 25 feet, I felt winded. At work, just sitting my heart rate was 120, and really pounding away!!! Finally I had an ecg done and it was normal, just fast. But the Doctor said she didn't like the way I looked and wanted to run some tests...you see, it turned out my heart rate was fast, my respiratory rate was fast and my oxygen saturation was low, and I was pale. After a bit of arguing any stubborness on both sides, the doctor won. I checked myself in. AFter some blood work was run, a chest xray and finally a CT scan of my lungs. It was found that I had multiple bilateral pulmonary emboli....in laymans terms, and the doctors words "lots of blood clots on both sides of my lungs!!!" I was immediately started an heparin, a blood thinner. Then the pulmonologist came in and told me that with my age and the location of the clots, I needed to be more aggressive. They started me on a drug called TPA, it's a clot buster. It breaks the clots up, and can produce bleeding. So, I ended up in the ICU for a night on major blood thinners and major watch. At first they wouldn't let me out of bed at all, then around midnight, they told me I could get up to pee....thank god!!!! Now I'm in a regular room, still on the heparin. I will have IV heparin until at least Wednesday. Thursday is the soonest they'll let me go home. I'll be on coumadin for at least 6 months, then more tests will be run.

So, it's been a whirlwind weekend for me. Hopefully all will be better by next week. I have to talk to the doc, they informed me I have to lower my stress levels. My 12 hour work shifts might be over. I'll probably have to enter the land of normal people and actually work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day. That'll most likely work better with school anyways. The school was cool with me so far with all that's involved. So that's a good thing.

Everybody thanks for you prayers, I'm just hanging out at St. Alexius. At least they all know me here, so that makes it easier to deal with some of the stuff. They're extra nice to me. And contrary to popular belief, thus far I have been a wonderful patient. I haven't gotten snotty or mean with anyone...but it's still early! :)

Where does the time go???

OK, now its the middle of October, which to me as student means....once this week is finished, I'm officially half way through my first semester!!! YEAH!!! That's huge, cuz I've been counting this sucker down week by week, it's the only way I can make it through.

Also, all my weddings for the year are finished. Phew.....you don't understand, we had three weddings in six weeks! Last night being the final one. I'll recap....Mary's wedding, lots of fun, once again a Ryan wedding, never a disappointment. Dan was blown away by the Ryan family, yet, he fit right in. Thanks Mary, we had so much fun....I hope you had a wonderful honeymoon.

Last night was definitely a different wedding. It was a Rock and Roll Wedding, where prelude music included such bands as Nine Inch Nails, Iron maiden, Metallica, Disturbed...the groom walked into MOby and the Bride and bridal party to "Don't' Stop Believing!" by Journey. Instead of a framed photo or a guest book, there was a guitar to sign, interesting. The bride wore Chuck Taylor's, which I thought was genious, because she was totally comfy in gym shoes all night long. Never had to worry about when it was acceptable to take off the heels.... All in all it was quite cute! Tough to dance to though, how do you dance to heavy metal? My fiance got quite excited, you see that's his type of music, and I think was a little crushed when both his mother and I said "NO" to Iron Maiden at our own wedding....Whats your vote? Do you agree with me or Dan?

All in all, thank God it's over! Now I'm just back to the grindstone of school and work. You know, I heard on the news today that there are only 71 shopping days left til Christmas....It's not even Halloween yet!!!!!! Oh well, it all gets earlier every year.