Rat Poison

[Drizzt80]

Hope you're 'back in the saddle' ASAP Dale! Hospital visits suck though the food isn't as bad as most people think (pretend?) it is. I seriously hope the prognosis for a speedy recovery is equally as exciting as your coming home this afternoon.

D80

 

[PtDnsr]

Glad you're getting outta there! Whatever you do make sure you stick to whichever drug they started you on (probably Warfarin) as the generic and brand react slightly differently in some patients (6 years as a pharmacy tech was more than long enough).

~Katie

 

[jazzgeek]

Home Safe....but a long ways to go.

Well, I'm home....amazingly, Bo was cooped up inside for 28 hours (my brother wasn't able to make it in), and not a pee stain to be found. I was picked up by my mother and sister (and not knowing that I'd be released, my 76 year old mother brought a book for me to pass the time - "Nothing's Sacred" by Lewis Black - it's obvious that the apple didn't fall far from the tree), had a nice lunch with them as I brought them up to speed, and they followed me home so I wouldn't bleed out in the car.

I'll be injecting myself with Lovenox twice a day for five days while I also take 5 mgs of Coumadin.....along with some blood pressure medication. I'm thinking of getting one of those "day of the week" pill dispensers. Hell, I'll go all out and get some plaid Bermuda shorts and book a trip to Branson while I'm at it.

A few random observations -

• Outside of, or better put, along with the military, law enforcement, firefighters, and educators, nurses belong in the pantheon of noble professions. Their dedication to the betterment of complete strangers is astounding, not to mention their ability to discern the nuance between a mere joke, and a joke used to defensively hide one's abject fear. As a group, they understand, and respond to, subtext better than anyone.
• Blood thinners work, and work well. After I showered just before leaving the hospital, I toweled off using the standard issue 100 grit industrial linens - and found a one centimeter wide bruise around the point in my gut where I got my morning's subcutaneous injection of Lovenox. I'll be using the Playtex gloves with pissy snakes as a means of survival, not protection.
• Any regrets about quitting or desires to return to smoking have ended, and ended easily. This ain't no game.
• No matter how antisocial (or better put, asocial) I've become over the years, no matter how much I intellectualize a solution to a problem, no matter how well constructed my logic and argumentation is to support an idea, and no matter how lofty your spiritual/theological belief system is, it is, and will always be, the people you care for, and the people who care for you, that will see you through a problem. And I'm not just talking blood clots.

Thanks again to all who have wished me well, be it here, the "other" thread, or in PMs, as I have yet another "humbled by life" experience.

regards,
jazz

 

[diamondlil]

'Noble'? You obviously haven't seen us out socialising, I'll see if I can get some decent pics from this years Hospital Ball, most of the ones I've found on my computer from previous outings involve images that would have made you very, very afraid! :roflmao:

 

[jazzgeek]

'Noble'? You obviously haven't seen us out socialising, I'll see if I can get some decent pics from this years Hospital Ball, most of the ones I've found on my computer from previous outings involve images that would have made you very, very afraid!

Well, there's work life, and there's non-work life.

But yeah, I'm kind of familiar.....I was married to a physician. Although her idea of spontaneity was to tell me (and yes, this ACTUALLY happened), "Dale! Let's be spontaneous!"

Um, sure. What time should we plan that for?

regards,
jazz

 

[JoannaD]

I don't care what profession you work at, being married and working is enough to make you lose any spontaneity!



Jo

 

[Mrs InsaneOne]

Wow Dale, I haven't really been on to read in the last couple of days, or I would have sent you a well wish sooner. I sure hope that you are feeling better and that you continue to get better and stay well. Glad to hear that everything was identified very quickly and gotten simi-under control so soon!


Jenn

 

[jazzgeek]

The things we do to find comfort.....

Last night, I did my first self-administered injection of the Lovenox. Now, I've injected Bo before, so I'm used to needles and syringes, it's just that I've never stuck myself, so there was a little bit of inherent anxiety in the process.

So I swab my chunk-o-flesh with the rubbing alcohol, "twick" the air to the needle side of the syringe, adjust the dosage level with the plunger, "pinch the inch" near my belly......

....still anxious. Figuring I gotta do this or die, I reach into my childhood for some gesture of comfort.

So as I swing my arm holding the syringe towards my gut, I let out a barely audible "Hiiiiii-YAH". Think of Miss Piggy throwing a karate chop.

I am sofa king we Todd did. But hey, I got my meds in me.

regards,
jazz

 

[diamondlil]

If you let the alcohol dry, it stings less, also try to inject firmly but not with too much force to try and minimise the bruising. A big hug to you for being brave though. I'm ok for getting blood drawn or my booster shots, but from what patients tell me those bloood-thinners sting and itch like heck.

 

[Candachan]

So as I swing my arm holding the syringe towards my gut, I let out a barely audible "Hiiiiii-YAH". Think of Miss Piggy throwing a karate chop.

I am sofa king we Todd did. But hey, I got my meds in me.

regards,
jazz

I think I fainted. :sidestep:

 

[gwb8568]

i also have not been on much this week due to a job change (and with the site being down the last couple of days) so i am just getting around to this thread. glad to hear you are home and seem to be doing better. thoughts and prayers are with you and a full/complete recovery. also, nice to have your humor and wit back on the forum.

galen

 

[jazzgeek]

First PT-INR results....

...which, if you didn't know, stands for Prothrombin Time - International Normalized Ratio, and is a "standardized" measure on how quickly the blood coagulates.

"Normal" people under "normal" conditions will have an INR of 0.8 to 1.2. Those of us on an anticoagulant therapy like Coumadin (rat poison) should be tracking somewhere between 2.0 and 3.0.

After 5 days on the Lovenox injections and the 5 mgs of Coumadin, I'm at 1.26. That's some sticky blood I got there.

What that means, of course, is that I have to continue on the injections and maybe increase the dosage of the Coumadin - my next blood work will be on Friday.

And it's not so bad - the problem lies in ramping up too much on the Coumadin and getting INR values in the 4 - 5 range, then having to work your way back down. A slow and steady climb to an appropriate level is more desirable than quickly overshooting and having to work your way back down.

It's just that I've got (as I've said in my sig) constellations of hematomas on my stomach from the needles. Currently, I'm going for a "Big Dipper" design.

To which my doctor replied, "We'll get you taken care of before we get the whole Milky Way on you."

Works for me.

regards,
jazz

 

[desertanimal]

It's just that I've got (as I've said in my sig) constellations of hematomas on my stomach from the needles. Currently, I'm going for a "Big Dipper" design.

To which my doctor replied, "We'll get you taken care of before we get the whole Milky Way on you."

Works for me.

My god, Dale. You are a funny, funny man. Glad to see you're still feeling yourself after (and during) this.

 

[Tula_Montage]

Dale!!! Sorry im so late to this thread but i'v had some recent health issues myself...

Sending you many difuzzled purple wishes and I really hope you feel so much better very soon!

My own family recently went through a similar scare when my mother was in intensive care for months with a lung clot... I can just imagine how your own family are/were feeling.

So, you old fart, you better get well soon!!! :crazy02:

 

[Nanci]

Wow, a friend of mine is several months into treatment for DVT and the resulting PE. Do you have any idea what brought it on? Hers was from a plane ride- and she'd been taking all the precautions to not get a DVT on the plane- getting up, moving around, etc. She's a cyclist, and was (sitll is) banned from riding while on the blood thinners, causing her to have to drop out of a 508 mile race in Death Valley that she'd been training for all year. It's a life-altering event, that's for sure. You are very lucky- and I hope your treatment/recovery is uneventful. Great description of the first self-injection, BTW.

Nanci

 

[SnakeCreations]

[*]No matter how antisocial (or better put, asocial) I've become over the years, no matter how much I intellectualize a solution to a problem, no matter how well constructed my logic and argumentation is to support an idea, and no matter how lofty your spiritual/theological belief system is, it is, and will always be, the people you care for, and the people who care for you, that will see you through a problem. And I'm not just talking blood clots.
QUOTE]

Dale...

This is extremely touching and moving. Actually your entire post and this thread is impressive. Clearly you are a well grounded individual who can ascertain between what is a crisis and important in life and what is not. Despite all of your jokes and humor (which I ALWAYS get and laugh at) you remain quite human well done!

As far as Nurses go, your comment ROCKS It's people like you, who are able to appreciate, that keeps most moving on strong.

Be well my sticky friend!

-Tonya

 

[jazzgeek]

Another blood draw today....

.....but I'm not looking forward to the results. Even the phlebotomist, someone licensed to simply draw blood dozens of times a day, commented on how quickly I clotted up after the draw, and I'm sure she's used to seeing how someone clots up at the proper INR levels.

I'll get the results on Monday; meanwhile, I just shelled out almost three grand for a two week supply of the Lovenox. Staying alive can be expensive.....but then I consider the alternative.

Also, I now have an "open-ended" account at the hospital lab; think of it as a reverse bar tab - I pay them to take fluids out of me.

As for the latest batch-o-kind-words:

Sending you many difuzzled purple wishes

Thanks, Elle. Thinking of making diffused lavs and diffused hypo lavs is a reason to stay alive.

My god, Dale. You are a funny, funny man. Glad to see you're still feeling yourself

When I think of me, I feel myself.

And maybe that's why I haven't been married since 1991.

Do you have any idea what brought it on? Hers was from a plane ride- and she'd been taking all the precautions to not get a DVT on the plane- getting up, moving around, etc. She's a cyclist, and was (sitll is) banned from riding while on the blood thinners

Yeah, there's a reason that this is also referred to as "Economy Class Syndrome" - I'm amazed that I didn't develop one of these when I was a serious road warrior, flying to a client site on Sunday night and flying back home on Thursday night for five straight years.

Presuming there's not a genetic component to this (and given the family history, they'll be testing for hypercoagulability mutations down the road), it can be chalked up to a sedentary job; when I'm focused on writing code, I've gone as much as ten hours straight without getting out of my chair. (During the barhopping days of my foolish youth, my friends referred to me as "Monster Bladder" ) That has changed. I activated the part of the "Accessibility Options" in the Windows Control Panel that sets a "Get Up and Move" popup window every two hours.

And GAH - I used to be a serious cyclist a decade (and twenty pounds) ago, both road and mountain biking. Nominate me for "Most Stupid Lifestyle Change", if you must.....but I started smoking just a decade ago, and the cycling gradually fell by the wayside. Now that I quit smoking, once I'm stable with the blood levels, I'll be starting back on the bikes. But I've been told "no extreme sports" - like I ever had any - so I guess my rugby career is over. :shrugs:

Clearly you are a well grounded individual who can ascertain between what is a crisis and important in life and what is not. Despite all of your jokes and humor (which I ALWAYS get and laugh at) you remain quite human well done!

Watch out - when someone says such kind words, I approach becoming a stalker. (Nah, I just check out the profile - and agreed, I'd move to Moab in a New York minute..) While some here have recently questioned my maturity level, I tell you, when you cross this point in your life, you're instantly reminded of what's important....which allows you to unclench. :grin01:

Thanks again, everyone. Lab results on Monday. Film at eleven.

regards,
jazz

 

[Eremita]

Better program

Dale, check out Workrave if you have not already. I use it at work, and I'm happy with it. GPL too.

-Sean

 

[cka]

Glad to hear you are on the road to recovery buddy, and my wife Angela, a soon to be graduating nurse, thanks you for the kind words towards her chosen profession...You need to stay alive at least til next years Tinley show...We'll hoist a light beer to your continued survival :grin01:

 

[Nanci]

You might like the book "Heft On Wheels- A Field Guide To Doing A 180" by Mike Magnuson. I love it and have read it over and over again.

Nanci