DVT Scare
The night of the 8th Patrick's lower leg was swollen and painful with red blotches. I told him he needed to see the doctor since it didn't look so good to me.
He came home Monday night saying that he had to get a doppler to rule out DVT. I checked my patho book and became worried. Deep venous thrombosis could lead to pulmonary embolism. Aaagh!
Fast forward to the 12th, the first time he could get an appointment. We went to the medical center nearby for a 9AM appointment. He was finally seen around 11AM. I watched, though was a bit lost and didn't know how many questions I should be asking. I was surprised that the lab tech wasn't explaining to another nursing student what was going on.
They began the ultrasound at the groin, and worked their way down, the iliac, popliteal, and other veins along the way. I watched as she would turn on the flow. I would see the red/orange and blue indicating direction. I saw the black lumens. The tech would record, then rewind, and capture and label a shot, applying pressure to send the blood back, then capture a photo to compare. There were sound waves saved as well.
She changed heads to get a deeper view around the gastrocnemius. When it was over, she said there was no clot. Yay! Now his doctor has to come up with some other reason though.
He came home Monday night saying that he had to get a doppler to rule out DVT. I checked my patho book and became worried. Deep venous thrombosis could lead to pulmonary embolism. Aaagh!
Fast forward to the 12th, the first time he could get an appointment. We went to the medical center nearby for a 9AM appointment. He was finally seen around 11AM. I watched, though was a bit lost and didn't know how many questions I should be asking. I was surprised that the lab tech wasn't explaining to another nursing student what was going on.
They began the ultrasound at the groin, and worked their way down, the iliac, popliteal, and other veins along the way. I watched as she would turn on the flow. I would see the red/orange and blue indicating direction. I saw the black lumens. The tech would record, then rewind, and capture and label a shot, applying pressure to send the blood back, then capture a photo to compare. There were sound waves saved as well.
She changed heads to get a deeper view around the gastrocnemius. When it was over, she said there was no clot. Yay! Now his doctor has to come up with some other reason though.