My dad was just released from a 10 day stay at the V.A. hospital yesterday after a very scary ordeal. He had been having some pain and swelling in his left foot which turned into worse pain and his foot turning gray- not good. He went to a podiatrist who told him to see a vascular surgeon. Luckily my dad is a veteran, and for a self-employed man with no insurance that opened up a whole world of nearly-free medical care. It almost makes his horrible, life-altering experience in the Army worth it. He left his Redmond home very early on Sunday morning (2/8) and drove to my Aunt Shelly's house. She took him up to the V.A. and as soon as they verified his discharge papers and income the E.R. staff started freaking out about the fact that there was 0% blood flow in his left leg- yikes. That led to the discovery of multiple blood clots.
An angiogram was performed to put clot-busting medication in his veins. Then his foot turned white- that's even worse than gray. At that point the decision was made to do emergency surgery to remove the clots, so at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday my dad was whisked away to the O.R. In his delirious, drug-induced state he begged my aunt not to let them take his leg. He came out of surgery at 1:30 a.m. and the surgeons were quite happy with the results. Another surgery was planned, but his condition improved so fast that the surgery was canceled.
He continued to improve until the nurses in the surgical inpatient ward intervened and threw in a little extra suffering by placing an I.V. in his muscle instead of a vein and leaving it there for about 12 hours, letting an intern practice blood draws on the back of his hand, and ramming into the bad foot and not apologizing.
He somehow managed to survive the hospital and is now at home in Redmond, which isn't by Cedar City, in case you were wondering.
"my dearest friends, even if your hope has burned with time, anything that's dead shall be re-grown, and your vicious pain, your warning sign, you will be fine." - Angels and Airwaves
Here's to a speedy recovery, Dad!
Hi my name is lemickia crews. I had blood clots for 7 years and its not a easy thing for me. I lose so much weight and then comes back and I was so scared of my life because i have 2 children and I am going to the doctors every week or every two weeks.Also i have to get blood every week to check on PTR and its very hard to do because i have to eat the rights foods. I cant eat dark greens foods cause of the DVT. I am so sorry that people and childrens have this cause its very dangerous and very serious problem. I feel like people dont understand our problems cause they never went through it in theris lifes. Thank u for understanding my blood clots.
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