Category: Chris’s Blog

And for my August swimming excitement….
I may have one more as well, I am waiting on the actual date of the event.

So, my primary care doctor just called me from home as he knew I’d be worried about the CT scan and lab work that was done this afternoon. Guess what? no more blood clots. The IVC is now clear and the clots have dissolved. It appears that the new blood thinners are doing their job. Did I mention that I HATE stabbing myself with a needle twice a day? And no one can tell me now not to become black and blue in the process. What no one can figure out is why I am having some serious muscle pain every once in a while, to the point of out of breath and debilitating. Oh, well, at least partial good news.

Wow. I am not sure how often people do this but every once in a while take a look at your message requests (you know the ones that do not show up unless you click on them). Someone I went to high school with 34 years ago left me a message today. It is the first classmate that has ever reached out to see how I am doing. Making friends and being accepted in HS was not easy for me. Was sort of a loaner and target at times. And I was just thinking about some of the guys this morning while I was in the pool.

Yes, I did go for a very short swim this morning. Before anyone yells at me, it was a pitifully short swim. Totally in line with me being out of the hospital for just 2 days. Totally short, and pitifully slow.

I am home. Well, actually I was home a while ago but I had a few calls I had to make and I am being very closely monitored by the fun police (Mindy). She has glared at a few of the other dogs already and she looked like she was about to take Leona’s and Rambo’s heads off when they bounced up on me. She is in no mood to mess around. Zero tolerance right now.

We still do not know exactly what happened and why. They found some clots on the IVC filter but they are unsure if they developed there or migrated. I am leaning towards the later based on some strange breathing and other issues over the last few weeks. I am now on injectable Lovenox, not a fun prospect but one that should keep me safe until they figure out what to do about the filter. It needs to come out eventually as it is not recommended for people that have the number of blood disorders that I do, but there are risks associated with removing it.

We do not know why the blood thinner (prodaxa) that I was on failed to do what it was supposed to do. That is a pretty big concern because it is one of the few that is safe for me to take.

I am still having some balance type issues and I am having some difficulties catching my breath and deep breathing. I feel a little “out of it” but that may just because of being in bed for three days.

I never did get all the consults my hematologist wanted me to get in the hospital as the hospitalist (who has less than a year practicing with a license) decided that I didn’t need them and discharged me. The same with the echocardiogram that was needed. It also appears that one of the doctors wrote an order for an angiogram and that never happened as well. Again, all orders were canceled by the hospitalist.

Anyways, even though the hospitalist told me she would take care it she neglected to write me a “return to work” authorization so I am unable to return to work until I have an appointment with my primary care next week. This severely limits me in what I can and cannot do. I am also limited because of some safety issues regarding the new blood thinner. It is not reversible so if I bleed I need a plasma transfusion to stop bleeding.

Thanks all for your good thoughts and supporting Jesse over the last few days.

Hey All quick update as nothing much happened today. I am still here at Tampa General Hospital. They have moved me from heparin to lovenox and are waiting for it to settle at therapeutic levels. I am still waiting on an echocardiogram which may happen in the morning. My hematologist put in a consult for cardiology and pulmonologist but the attending has said that was not needed and I am not sure if that is going to happen. The mystery that no one has been able to solve is why I get so badly dehydrated. I was talking to one of the floor nurses about that as you would think after 5 or 6 hospital visits someone would worry about that. He suggested that I see an endocrinologist but has no idea how to convince my attending of this. I sent a message to my hematologist about it and will see if he can make it happen.
So I am in a holding pattern for now. I suspect that as usual nothing about root cause will happen and they will discharge me tomorrow without answers and we will do this again sometime over the summer as that is the pattern.

Still here. They have discontinued the heparin and are doing the transition to lovenox which will take about 24 hours. They still want to do another echocardiogram and who knows what else.

I have absolutely decided on how they select attending physicians in hospitals, they are the doctors who go through med school and have such crappy communication skills that they would never be able to practice on their own. The one I have fits this picture perfectly.

I will probably have to stay on the lovenox until I have another CT scan in a few months and then remove the partially blocked IVC filter.