Saturday, July 19, 2008

BOOO!!! HISSSSSS!!!! We are back at Presby!

As much as we love the people here, we hate that we had to come back, but, here we are. We are thankful to know Ron's in great hands so that makes it bearable.

It started out as just a small, pea-sized sore spot early on Friday. By around 6PM it had progressed to golf ball-sized and was causing quite a bit more discomfort at which time Ron finally told me by saying "I think we need to call Dr. Shires". Dr. Shires explained it sounded like a muscular sheath hematoma (basically a pocket of blood within the sheath of the muscle) due to a Lovenox injection I evidently got in the muscle instead of just the fat (like I can find any fat to inject into!). He told us to put pressure on the area for 15 minutes to stop the bleeding (it's all internal) and have Ron lay flat on his back for an hour; often this will flatten it out, slightly relieving the pain. That seemed to work. Another call to Dr. Shires for an update confirmed his suspicion. He felt as long as Ron stayed down it would resolve on it's own although it would remain painful for the next few days. Unfortunately, there is really nothing they can do for it except manage the pain.

Within a couple of hours the bulge was larger (think HUGE...larger than a softball). By midnight it was EXTREMELY PAINFUL; UNBEARABLE pain. The maximum dose of lollipops at the minimal intervals were not touching the pain. You know it's painful when Ron says we need to go to the ER! We arrived here at 2AM and were admitted to a room by 4:30. Unfortunately, they are booked here on 6West, so he had to be put in a semi-private room (at least until they have someone discharge from a private room). Poor guy, he's had no sleep due to the pain...it took until 10AM to get the right pain meds delivered and the interim pain meds just weren't cutting it. And then, his roommate has had a visitor that has talked very loudly, nonstop since 9AM.

Please pray for the pain to subside dramatically and for the hematoma to resolve. In extreme circumstances, they have to go in surgically but we do not want that! And they are not talking in those terms at this point.

Please NO VISITORS...as soon as we get him moved to a private room, we hope to get some much-needed rest!

Much love
Christie

PS: We remain very excited that he has been doing so well and know this is just a minor setback! His vitals remain very stable despite all of this mess. And we have set several new records:

1. longest time at home without returning to Presby for anything other than scheduled appointments
2. made it through 2 IR appointments without having to be readmitted
3. admission not due to dehydration!

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