Monday, August 12, 2013

A personal story I need to share...

I've been gone for a while and I normally don't share a lot on my blog about my personal life but, I feel this is important to share because it could happen to anyone and maybe this story will help someone else.

My son turned 28 years old on July 5, 2013. On July 19, 2013 at 4:30 am he knocked on the door of my bedroom and said he thought he needed to go to the hospital. He thought he had a blood clot in his leg. So I hopped out of bed, looked at his "calf" and yes is was a little swollen and a little larger than the other calf. Now he's been telling me for weeks that he has a blood clot. He always thinks something is wrong with him, cancer, etc. Too much time on the internet and webMD. So I just kept telling him there was no way he had a blood clot, he's way to young. When I saw the swelling for the first time I thought, Yep, we better go to the emergency room. So, I took my time, put my makeup on, got dressed, etc. and about 5:30 am we went to the emergency room.

They took him in right away and put him in a Trauma room. I didn't think much about it. He told them he had pain, in his leg and that he had an edema, (a friend of his at work happens to work in the emergency room at the hospital and told him if he pushed in with his thumb by his ankle and it stayed indented, he has an edema.) So, he told the nurse he thought he had a blood clot. So they didn't waste any time taking him downstairs for a ultrasound on his leg. I text my boss and said I thought he was fine and I'll be in later.

When he came back to his Trauma Room, it wasn't very long until the Doctor was back in and told us yes, he has a blood clot in his leg. I couldn't believe it! How does that happen to a 28 year old? So the doctor said she wanted to get a CT Scan to be sure there wasn't any clots anywhere else. Just as a precaution she said. So, off he goes again downstairs for a CT Scan.

When they come back up, the doctor says they are admitting him. He has a pulmonary embolism. Here come the tears and the guilt. If I had brought him in a couple of weeks ago when he said it was bothering him, we might have avoided this. Of course, like my sister said, he is a big boy and could have gone himself to the ER so the guilt didn't last long but it was a very frightening experience.

Everything was happening pretty fast now and they put him in a room and the pulmonary doctor came in and talked to us. She asked all the questions you would ask anyone with a blood clot in their leg. Has he traveled a long distance by plane, has he had any surgery recently, has he had an injury that immobilized him, any history of blood clots in the family, etc. The answer to all of those questions were "No." She is baffled as to why this happened.

So they took some blood and sent it off to be tested for this Factor Five, (I think it's called that) disease. The blood test came back with low proteins but, when you do the test when a clot is already present, the results are skewed.

So, the pulmonary doctor shows me and my sister the CT scan of his lungs. He is one lucky boy. He had a LARGE blood clot in the saddle (something) of his lungs right next to the right side of his heart. If it had been vertical instead of horizontal, the heart would not have been able to pump blood and he would have died. He also had several small clots in the arteries of lungs. So they started him with heparin shots and Coumadin or Warfarin (genetic).

This was three weeks ago and he is doing fine. We go to the anti-coagulation clinic once a week to have his INR checked and we think we finally have the right dosage for him. He is also wearing a compression sock especially at work.

So I have been a little preoccupied and crochet has gone by the wayside and so has my blog. Hopefully things will settle down now and get back to normal. We feel so blessed that he didn't die from this. The pulmonary doctor said usually when they see this big of a clot in that location, they don't make it. Thank God, Adam did.




22 comments:

  1. Wow! Hope everyone will be fine soon.XO

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  2. Oh my God how scary Eileen! it just goes to show that we have to sit up and take notice no matter how unlikely things may seem. I am so glad that he is recovering and I hope he continues to do well and makes a full recovery. :)

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  3. wow..I don't know what to say except how blessed is your family. Hugs and Blessings

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  4. Oh Eileen - I am so, so glad that everything will be ok with your son. How scary it must of been for both of you. I will keep you both in my prayers. ((hugs)) ♥

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  5. Oh Eileen, i am so, so sorry. It is rare for a young man to have a pulmonary embolism but not unheard of. My husband has survived three of them, the first when he was about, 36, 38 and 42. He was hospitalized all three times and was lucky to be alive. He is on blood thinners for the rest of his life and wears a compression stocking everyday. He had the testing to see if his were genetic, they were not. Possibly due to knee surgery he had as a football player in college or from dehydration due to training for triathlons. We will never really know. He is fine now, healthy and happy and 59 years old. So your son should be fine, too.

    I am sending you both a big hug and positive thoughts for a quick recovery.
    Meredith

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  6. I am so sorry you have been going through all this. What a scary time!! I am so glad to hear he is doing well :)

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  7. WOW I am so sorry. Im glad everythings ok now. What a scare. Hugs

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  8. So glad all is well now. The Lord must have some big plans for you sweet young man.

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  9. Miracles do happen! Praying for a speedy recovery

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  10. So sorry that you had been going through this turmoil. Blessings and wishes to your son to get well soon :)

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  11. So sorry that he's going through this. We have a strong family history of blood clots on my mom's side. Several of my relatives had clots in their 20s. My uncle has a filter to "catch them" and it is not unusual for him to have 30+ at once. I have a vena cava filter because a surgeon wouldn't operate on me without one because of my family history. Thank you very much for posting your story to warn others.

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  12. This brought tears to my eyes... I just lost my sister to an aneurysm in her brain. She was only 16 years old. I am so happy that your son is doing fine now; it is so crazy how fast horrible things can happen.

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  13. Wow, Eileen... This is really sobering. I am so glad that he turned out ok, and I am so glad that things were not as bad as they could have been. It can be so easy to shrug off things like that with our children no matter what their age, I guess this just reminds us all that we need to take them seriously even if it may seem silly. Thank goodness you listened when you did, or Lord knows how different things would be now. God was watching over y'all to be sure!

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  14. Oh dear! Thank you so much for sharing your experience here. As parents, I think we all struggle with what is real and what isn't in our children! Am glad your sister's words eased your guilt! She was right! Still...I so sympathize with you! Such a blessing that it all worked out as it did. Adam's guardian angel was flying low and protecting him, that's for sure! And, she was helping you too...guiding you to stand beside him and seek treatment! Sending prayers for continued improvement! Hugs from one Mom to another! Annette

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  15. Lucky guy, your son !!!
    Hug
    Anna

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  16. Wow, talk about stress. I know we all cherish our children and no matter what age we want them healthy. Glad things are going well now.praying for you.

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  17. I am so glad to hear that your son is alright!! A very lucky guy!!x

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  18. Blessed Be!!!! Good to hear this episode had a happy ending....
    I too have had some unusual medical events with several of my kids... (in the past) that were totally unexpected rare and Life threatening....
    Hard to wrap one's brain around why these events pop up and why some end better than others...... More a spiritual person than a religious one: but the expression "God's Will be done" comes to mind.....
    Sending You Love and Light and holding You Your son and family in my Heart and Prayers.

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  19. An online friend's son (also named Adam - also 28 years old) had a similar experience with a blood clot in July. I'm so happy to hear your son is ok and getting the treatment he needs. I wish her story had ended the same way :( Stay strong during this difficult time. Blessings, Rhondda

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  20. I'm new to your blog. Even though I am a stranger to you, my heart goes out to your son and to you. My husband had DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) after a surgery. We had no idea that a cramping feeling in his leg could be a blood clot. Thankfully his doctor saw him two days after the pain began, for a routine check up. He ended up going back to the hospital and was there for a week on heparin and warfarin. Thank God for your son's and my hubby's recovery.

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  21. Dear Eileen, I just found your blog and wrote...don't know if you got it...but when I read about your son, it was like my heart stopped for a minute..almost the same thing happened to my son(44) the week before Christmas. He had just come back from running GD2 to school, grabbed coffee, went downstairs to give his wife coffee felt funny a minute, saw a white light, fell, passed out and she managed to get him to help get on the bed & she came to get me, I had her take blood sugar and I called 911...he was white as a sheet face & arms, gasping for breath...I thought it might be a heart attack, but the emts said no, (they came in 3 min or less0 took him to the hospital 5 min away, on oxygen the whole time did a scan and said he had a Saddle Embolism lodged in the pulmonary arch...no blood getting in , so no oxygen; said his only chance was the clot buster drug, and thank goodness it worked! He was in CCU several days on heprin while they ran tests...had questioned us in the ER , same as your questions; no apparent reason, thus the testing. Turns out he had hundreds (they said) of little clots in his legs...we all had no idea. Never heard the back about genetic thing, so guess he does not have it...no family history, either. He went on cumadin when he got out & goes for checkups all the time. My other reply was more detiled0
    I think we were both blessed...the Lord was looking out for our sons. (((HUGS))) dorothy

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  22. I am new here, too..I tried to post twice to tell you I sympathize completely...almost the exact same thing happened to my son(44) the week before Christmas. A saddle embolism...almost died in front of us ...long story, as you well know.
    We were blessed ...the Lord protected them for us. I hope we all never have to go through something like this again. If the other attempts at posting did not go through, I am adding my email if you want to "talk". (((hugs))) from one mom to another
    dorothy
    dahtee@swbell.net


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