Blood Clot Update
Yesterday was another long day. I woke up early and went to work for seven hours. I worked straight through, trying to get the schedules done as quickly as possible. I spoke with my boss and decided to take vacation time next week. I have more vacation time for the year than I had anticipated. I am technically off of the schedule, but planning on coming in for a day or so to catch up on things I need to do. I like this arrangement, because I can basically come in whenever I want, even in the middle of the night, very flexible.
After work, I went directly to the hospital. My mom and aunt had been there all day and mom had just been taken in for her procedure when I arrived, around three. Good news and bad news...Bad news first...The surgeon found a massive blood clot near her groin on the left side. It's huge and calcified. They actually almost had a disaster during the angeogram. They did not expect to find the blood clot in that location, so when they went in, they narrowly missed hitting it. If they had hit it, it would have dislodged, and been a major emergency. But they didn't, so that's good.
Good News= The blood clot, although huge, is in a good location. It could mean that the vein could be opened and the clot could just be cut out. The other option is angioplasty to break it up, but they are concerned that it could break into too many pieces and they might not catch them all, which would cause emergency surgery. The surgeon was hopeful, but since the clot was so unusual, he wanted to consult with other doctors before doing the procedure.
Mom was sent home, with vicoden for the pain. She had radiation this morning and at the moment, is with my aunt at the oncologist. The surgery may be performed today. If not today, then very soon. It's serious, because it could dislodge at any moment and kill her. As bad as this sounds, I felt hopeful after getting this news yesterday. No talk of amputation, which had me freaked. It seems treatable.