Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Well I got out of the hospital last night. Friday the company said we’d be having to pass a physical on Tuesday, and I knew there’d be no way I could pass one. I was gasping just walking 20 feet out to the truck. So on Saturday my husband took me to the emergency room. Turns out I had pulmonary emboli; yep got my mom’s Factor V Leiden. I had the surgeon freaked out; he kept calling them massive and huge. Wish I could have seen the pics, those are words to make you curious. Also I have congenital atrial and ventricular septal defects, the clots were moving through the heart through those. My left leg had ‘huge’ (again) clots and my left subclavian artery was occluded from the aorta to the shoulder. Apparently the combination of heart defects and clots is one to be written up. They called Shands Hospital/ University of Florida in Gainesville from the ER and wanted to send me there, but it’s 3+ hours away and they thought I couldn’t make it. Psshw felt worse Tuesday, though maybe that’s because that oxygen mask was sheer heaven. Anyhow they flew a surgical team down from Gainesville and had me getting rotorooted less than 3 hours after I got there. I was in surgery for 4 hours. They didn’t put me under because they needed to monitor my neurological state- they were afraid of one of the pieces of clot breaking off and giving me a stroke. I think they forgot though, the one surgeon kept saying ‘Well she hasn’t died yet’. The nurse kept on stroking my forehead and asking if I was there lol. They cleaned what they dared out of my heart and pulmonary vessels; they didn’t dare mess with the subclavian. Lower down they installed a vena cava filter and left me hooked up to a device that emitted ultrasound waves to work with the super anticoagulants to break up the clots in my leg. That stayed in for 24 hours. I stayed in the cardiovascular ICU for 4 days. I had a transesophageal echocardiogram (that numbing agent for your throat is GROSS) and another cardiac catheterization and was moved to the medsurg floor. The cardiologist is a nervous sort- I’ve had these defects my whole life and they’ve never stopped me, but he’s wanting to send me to Shands in 3 weeks for more tests and consultations and he’s talking surgery to repair the defects. We’ll see. The hospital staff was great until the end- the last nurse was a condescending you’re stupid sort and literally booted me out the door when I was discharged- rushed through the discharge paper and pointed me out the room door. I walked myself to the elevator and out the door. I don’t know if it had anything to do with my being low income uninsured; they knew that from the start and it was never a problem until now that I’m out. I will have to be on anticoagulants the rest of my life- got the same hematologist as my mom hah. Not sure what, Walgreens has a deal where they’ll give you a few days worth on discharge and my mom has some Coumadin she’s not taking anymore she gave me. That drug I may be able to swing anyhow, it’s old and cheap (warfarin, same stuff as rat poison). The lovenox is $700/month so that’ll happen when pigs fly. I go to the hematologist on Monday; the cardiologist’s office said they won’t allow me to come because of my low status but his PA got on the line when she heard the office manager say my name and said that he INSISTED on seeing me ASAP and that I couldn’t even see any of the other associates, so we’ll see about that too. Oh well if I don’t see him I don’t have to worry about Shands, that’s one less bill. I really don’t know what I’m going to do about those, with emergency surgery and doctors from Shands and 4 days in the CVICU I figure I’ve burned through the entire Federal Reserve and Canada’s also. My state is quite insistent that as a working age adult I qualify for no assistance. I had quit my old job since I was fixing to go out of state for the new one- which would have given me insurance if I hadn’t been so stupid to get sick NOW. Now I don’t know if I’ll even have that job, or be able to drive a big rig at all. I still don’t feel well enough to work but I guess I’ll start looking at the stores hiring Christmas help as soon as I feel like I can walk across the yard. There have been better weeks but I’m still here.
Wow. I’m so sorry you had to go through all of this, but I am relieved to hear you are alive. This is so similar to what my mother went through a few years ago. Please make sure to talk to the hematologist about what you need to do to manage this. Also, don’t blame yourself for getting “sick”. There’s really nothing your could have done about it. It’s genetic, and it’s hard to tell what exactly suddenly triggers your blood to start clotting like this. Like you, I inherited genetic clotting factors from my mother, and I basically live with the fear that one day, for no discernible reason, this will happen to me, and that I may or may not survive it when it does. I’ve talked to a few medical professionals about it, and they told me a few things that might help (daily asprin, B-complex vitamins, no long car or plane rides, etc), but there’s not much evidence to prove whether or not it will do anything in the end.
My deepest condolences. 🙁
I hope and pray that his condition improves, but if it doesn’t, I think you made a very good choice in bringing him home. That way he’ll be with his family instead of with strangers.
I know you don’t want to hear this because of your situation, but pipsxlch, Please Please Please go to the Hospital as soon as possible. It sounds very much like you might have had a clot go to your lungs if you are having such a hard time breathing, and the way you described the condition of your arm – not good. I’m sure that your family would rather have you alive, even with extra debt, then not.
Hugs and Good luck.
I cannot agree with this more. Please get to a hospital right away. This is extremely serious. It nearly killed my mother a few years back because she ignored her symptoms until they stopped her dead in her tracks. She now has to be on blood thinners for the rest of her life and has to wear compression stockings because of vein damage to her legs. But believe me when I say she was lucky. Both my mother and I have three genetic clotting factors (though neither of us knew it at the time).
Here are the two that I got. I really like them quite a bit. However, the two of them are so similar to each other that I will likely be trading one of them off for something different.
I’m in Colorado Springs, and no month here is really safe from snow. We’re in the mountains more than a mile high in elevation. So far, so good this year though. Only a bunch of rain storms, really, and no snow on Pikes Peak yet. One of my trees is starting to turn though, so fall isn’t too far off…
Anyone seen this one yet? It’s pretty old, and I don’t think it’s in production anymore. Do you think it’s worth reporting? As far as rip-offs go, it’s actually pretty cute.
Hi Melody!
I just wanted to ask if all the future pebble animals would have felt pads? I know they cover up a somewhat messy bottom since they are difficult to paint, but one of the things that I love most about the pebbles is how it feels to touch and hold them. I feel like it wouldn’t be the same if they all had felt pads. So, I’m just curious what the plan is. Thank you!
There has been some discussion around here about this.
I don’t know what to do.
I prefer them without pads, but they are still nearly impossible to paint while keeping the bottoms at all presentable, even with this “no nitpicking” edition and the new technique we have of holding them, I spent a lot of time just painting and repainting the bottoms.
We might use the other pad material, the stuff we put on the bookend bottoms. It is thinner than the felt pads and feels slick, not rough.We are also talking about trying the original idea of having them polished with wax instead of painted, the way they were intended to be finished.
We couldn’t give them a polish finish when the pebbles were first introduced because the castings weren’t coming out nice enough.
They would be white, with grey flecks from the sand in the gypsum, like the Maya Hill pieces. These would be “feelies”, with no pads. They feel realllly nice!I love the idea of the “feelies”. I’d love to have a set that I can hold and touch all I want without having to worry about paint rubbing off. Thank you for the response!
I’m so sorry to hear about your pets drag0n. I had to put my 14 year old Akita Keiko down recently, so I can relate to how much it sucks.
It’s hard to say what causes an animal to go downhill so quickly, but when I was growing up, we had a cat and dog that pretty much grew up together as well. When we brought the dog home, the cat pushed up against the screen door and wanted to meet her. They were pretty much constant companions for 11 years until the dog developed cancer. The cat was perfectly healthy until the dog died, and then her health went into steady decline. She seemed unable to properly digest her food, and despite our best efforts and many vet visits, she died about a year later.
Man, I’ve really missed being a part of these swaps (and painting PYOs in general) for the past few years while I got my Master’s Degree. These have all turned out beautifully so far. I really love all the foo dogs!
Thanks guys!
I had to put my older dog to sleep so it’s been a really tough day, but it really does brighten my spirits to see that someone created this thread to wish me a happy birthday. So, I want to give a big thank you to everyone who posted. Thank you!!!
