My Big Scare
In less than 24 hours after my last entry about which fictional characters I would fornicate with, I was seriously hospitalized for the first time.
First of all, I must start by saying that about a week ago I was diagnosed by a hematologist to have Factor Five Leiden's disease. It is genetic, and I got it from my father. Basically, what Factor 5 is is a genetic pre-dispositioning to get blood clots. Many people who have it live completely normal lives and never ever get a bloodclot. However, they are at a higher risk to develop DVT (deep vein thrombosis - aka really bad blood clots in the legs). If the DVT goes undetected, the bloodclot can travel to the lungs, becoming a pulmonary embolism (or PE - this is really, really bad). The pulmonary embolism is very dangerous because if it goes undetected and is not treated immediately, it can either cause permanent damage to the lungs...or even travel to the heart and cause death. My hematologist told me all of this and the signs to look out for including swollen legs, shortness of breath, or unexplained pain in my lungs or legs. However, he said that I had no reason to worry about any of that because I was young, healthy, active, my father (who has it) had never had any clotting problems, and I had never had any previous clots.
Apparently, he was wrong; I don't get to be one of those people that live a completely normal life. I had been sick all last week, but it was only a chest cold and I had been coughing a lot. I felt all better on sunday, and this feeling of relief and calm went through yesterday morning. But then, around 12pm, I was sitting on my couch, typing on my laptop like a nice little geek, when I all of sudden started having trouble breathing. Every time I breathed in, I felt pain in the middle of my chest. I tried to sit there for a little while, hoping it would go away, but then I felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen so I tried to take a deep breath in...and the pain was so excruciating that I screamed.
That's when I knew something was truly wrong. I called my mother at work, gasping into the phone: "I...can't...breath, my...chest hurts...when...I breathe in. I...have to...go...to the hospital." She, of course, kept it together on the phone with me, but was freaking out inside. She called my Grandmother and my Aunt Patty, who immediately rushed me to the emergency room of Chilton Hospital.
They checked the oxygen saturation in my lungs (which was normal - 98%), then got me into a bed and then proceeded to do an EKG, some bloodwork, and an X-ray of my chest. All of these tests came back perfectly normal. The doctor then said, "You should be out of here in about an hour. We think you pulled a muscle from coughing so much, so we'll give you some morphine to dull the pain and then if it's gone in an hour you can leave with a prescription for some painkillers."
Something deep inside of me knew that this wasn't the truth. So I said, "No. I just found out that I have Factor Five Leiden's disease...and I think I have a blood clot." The doctor said "Well, to find that, we'll need to do a catscan...but that's very rare, and we highly doubt that at your age you would have one." My Grandma jumped in with "No. Do the catscan now, just to be safe."
Let me just say that getting a catscan has to be one of the wierdest feelings ever. They inject iodine solution into you, so you get a strange taste in your mouth, a warm feeling throughout the middle of your body, and you also feel like you're wetting yourself. Nonetheless, the machine was pretty cool and intriguing.
About 45 minutes later, the doctor came back holding a peice of paper, and said in a low voice, "It seems your inclination was correct...you actually do have a blood clot in your lungs." So, they admitted me into the pediatric wing of the hospital around 8pm, put me on a blood-thinning IV drip, and continued to check on me throughout the night. The nursing staff was really nice and the girls forced their way in to see me even though visiting hours were over, so I was relatively happy considering a "worst-case scenario" had just happened...to me...a week after I found out I had this...wow, I still can't believe that. But as soon as my mom and I were left alone in the room (she stayed with me overnight after everyone else left), it actually hit us and we both started to cry. She climbed into my hospital bed and just...held me as I sobbed. Then the nurse came in and was like "oh, bebe, it's okay, everything happens for a reason." Hmm, something to think about.
When people say that you don't sleep in a hospital, MAN are they right. They come and check on you with a flashlight every couple of minutes, and they also came to take my blood at midnight and at 6am. One more humorous tidbit, however, was that that little thing that they put on your finger to take your heart rate was malfunctioning and didn't pick up my heartbeat, so every so often the nurses would rush into the room thinking that I had no pulse. I would just look at them, check my own pulse, and give a thumbs-up sign.
First thing in the morning, my hematologist (blood doctor) Dr. Tassan came to read my charts and tell me what was happening. He told me that when he heard that I had a clot, he was absolutely shocked. I was supposed to be young, healthy...the last of his Factor Five patients he expected to actually develop a clot. Then he told me what all of this meant. First of all, I have to give myself injections of anti-coaggulants in my stomach for the next week. The nurse gave me the first of the injections today, and man...it hurt. It also bruised up my stomach where she injected the medicine. However, they made me give myself tonight's shot before I was discharged, and the spot where I injected myself actually did not bruise. So hell yeah, who's your doctor?
Second, he's putting me on a blood-thinning medication, Coumadin, which I will have to be on for six months, and possibly for the rest of my life. This means that I must be really careful now because if I cut myself, the bleeding will be much more than normal, and I will also bruise very easily. I also must be extremely careful of becoming pregnant, because when I want to have children in the future, I have to go off of the coumadin and switch to self-injections and be careful so as not to onset a miscarriage or stillbirth. As for now, I have to have my bloodwork done every few weeks, and the coumadin adjusted until it's at the right level for me. I also will probably have to wear one of those medical bracelets that say I am on coumadin because it interacts with a LOT of other medicines.
So basically, I'm fine. I just have to be really careful. I got very lucky, because I caught the PE before it could do any permanent damage, and now I know what to look out for and what to do. I am also lucky that it happened now, before I went off on my own to college. I feel very loved and appreciated because everyone cared so much about me and how I was doing...to everyone that called/visited/etc, thank you so much. You helped me get through being scared, and now I'm more confident because I feel informed and ready to take on whatever I have to do to get healthy and stay that way.
I'm just thankful to be here.
-Amanda
First of all, I must start by saying that about a week ago I was diagnosed by a hematologist to have Factor Five Leiden's disease. It is genetic, and I got it from my father. Basically, what Factor 5 is is a genetic pre-dispositioning to get blood clots. Many people who have it live completely normal lives and never ever get a bloodclot. However, they are at a higher risk to develop DVT (deep vein thrombosis - aka really bad blood clots in the legs). If the DVT goes undetected, the bloodclot can travel to the lungs, becoming a pulmonary embolism (or PE - this is really, really bad). The pulmonary embolism is very dangerous because if it goes undetected and is not treated immediately, it can either cause permanent damage to the lungs...or even travel to the heart and cause death. My hematologist told me all of this and the signs to look out for including swollen legs, shortness of breath, or unexplained pain in my lungs or legs. However, he said that I had no reason to worry about any of that because I was young, healthy, active, my father (who has it) had never had any clotting problems, and I had never had any previous clots.
Apparently, he was wrong; I don't get to be one of those people that live a completely normal life. I had been sick all last week, but it was only a chest cold and I had been coughing a lot. I felt all better on sunday, and this feeling of relief and calm went through yesterday morning. But then, around 12pm, I was sitting on my couch, typing on my laptop like a nice little geek, when I all of sudden started having trouble breathing. Every time I breathed in, I felt pain in the middle of my chest. I tried to sit there for a little while, hoping it would go away, but then I felt like I wasn't getting enough oxygen so I tried to take a deep breath in...and the pain was so excruciating that I screamed.
That's when I knew something was truly wrong. I called my mother at work, gasping into the phone: "I...can't...breath, my...chest hurts...when...I breathe in. I...have to...go...to the hospital." She, of course, kept it together on the phone with me, but was freaking out inside. She called my Grandmother and my Aunt Patty, who immediately rushed me to the emergency room of Chilton Hospital.
They checked the oxygen saturation in my lungs (which was normal - 98%), then got me into a bed and then proceeded to do an EKG, some bloodwork, and an X-ray of my chest. All of these tests came back perfectly normal. The doctor then said, "You should be out of here in about an hour. We think you pulled a muscle from coughing so much, so we'll give you some morphine to dull the pain and then if it's gone in an hour you can leave with a prescription for some painkillers."
Something deep inside of me knew that this wasn't the truth. So I said, "No. I just found out that I have Factor Five Leiden's disease...and I think I have a blood clot." The doctor said "Well, to find that, we'll need to do a catscan...but that's very rare, and we highly doubt that at your age you would have one." My Grandma jumped in with "No. Do the catscan now, just to be safe."
Let me just say that getting a catscan has to be one of the wierdest feelings ever. They inject iodine solution into you, so you get a strange taste in your mouth, a warm feeling throughout the middle of your body, and you also feel like you're wetting yourself. Nonetheless, the machine was pretty cool and intriguing.
About 45 minutes later, the doctor came back holding a peice of paper, and said in a low voice, "It seems your inclination was correct...you actually do have a blood clot in your lungs." So, they admitted me into the pediatric wing of the hospital around 8pm, put me on a blood-thinning IV drip, and continued to check on me throughout the night. The nursing staff was really nice and the girls forced their way in to see me even though visiting hours were over, so I was relatively happy considering a "worst-case scenario" had just happened...to me...a week after I found out I had this...wow, I still can't believe that. But as soon as my mom and I were left alone in the room (she stayed with me overnight after everyone else left), it actually hit us and we both started to cry. She climbed into my hospital bed and just...held me as I sobbed. Then the nurse came in and was like "oh, bebe, it's okay, everything happens for a reason." Hmm, something to think about.
When people say that you don't sleep in a hospital, MAN are they right. They come and check on you with a flashlight every couple of minutes, and they also came to take my blood at midnight and at 6am. One more humorous tidbit, however, was that that little thing that they put on your finger to take your heart rate was malfunctioning and didn't pick up my heartbeat, so every so often the nurses would rush into the room thinking that I had no pulse. I would just look at them, check my own pulse, and give a thumbs-up sign.
First thing in the morning, my hematologist (blood doctor) Dr. Tassan came to read my charts and tell me what was happening. He told me that when he heard that I had a clot, he was absolutely shocked. I was supposed to be young, healthy...the last of his Factor Five patients he expected to actually develop a clot. Then he told me what all of this meant. First of all, I have to give myself injections of anti-coaggulants in my stomach for the next week. The nurse gave me the first of the injections today, and man...it hurt. It also bruised up my stomach where she injected the medicine. However, they made me give myself tonight's shot before I was discharged, and the spot where I injected myself actually did not bruise. So hell yeah, who's your doctor?
Second, he's putting me on a blood-thinning medication, Coumadin, which I will have to be on for six months, and possibly for the rest of my life. This means that I must be really careful now because if I cut myself, the bleeding will be much more than normal, and I will also bruise very easily. I also must be extremely careful of becoming pregnant, because when I want to have children in the future, I have to go off of the coumadin and switch to self-injections and be careful so as not to onset a miscarriage or stillbirth. As for now, I have to have my bloodwork done every few weeks, and the coumadin adjusted until it's at the right level for me. I also will probably have to wear one of those medical bracelets that say I am on coumadin because it interacts with a LOT of other medicines.
So basically, I'm fine. I just have to be really careful. I got very lucky, because I caught the PE before it could do any permanent damage, and now I know what to look out for and what to do. I am also lucky that it happened now, before I went off on my own to college. I feel very loved and appreciated because everyone cared so much about me and how I was doing...to everyone that called/visited/etc, thank you so much. You helped me get through being scared, and now I'm more confident because I feel informed and ready to take on whatever I have to do to get healthy and stay that way.
I'm just thankful to be here.
-Amanda