This past week has been nice since every passing day brought improvement in my eating and I’ve been taking full advantage. Oh yes, believe me on that one. I was really looking forward to this past weekend since Amy and I were able to join some of our Team Mentschen friends for a group fundraising effort in Mt. Holly. Lots of hugs and kisses were shared and it was just a special, albeit toasty, day to spend with some of my closest friends. The real icing on the cake came yesterday when I joined in on a team training ride and managed to drag my butt through a 23.8 mile ride. Actually Cheri Drysdale, Geneva DiTaranto, and Stephanie Tobler were the draggers and I thank them for their patience.
I was all excited to post a blog entry that focused on the success of the bike ride yesterday but today brought info that kind of trumps the bike ride for top billing.
Last Tuesday/Wednesday I woke up with pain in my neck but figured that I just slept funny and that it would go away. Problem is that it didn’t go away and this morning we made an unexpected visit to see Dr. Richards. He quickly sent me to the adjacent building to see a vascular surgeon for an ultrasound to see what might be going on. The important point for me to mention here is that the discomfort is right where the catheter from my mediport goes into the jugular vein in my neck. The diagnosis was clear and immediate… sure enough I have a blood clot in my jugular vein.
So…. I have an emergency procedure to unexpectedly remove my mediport tomorrow afternoon. And that will be closely followed by a several day regimen of heparin and then Coumadin. Amy gets to inject the heparin here at home.
Are we having fun yet? LOL!!
For those of you worrying about the mere mention of “blood clot” please don’t get too carried away. The situation would be very different if the clot was in a larger blood vessel and if that vessel was an artery instead of a vein. There’s no risk of a stroke. Having the mediport removed tomorrow is a whole lot earlier then expected but that may turn out to be a blessing as well. I do know that I’m going to ask them to crank up the sedation a bit more then when it was put in which was NOT fun.
So that’s the whole scoop for now.
I’ll be back in touch as soon as I can with status.
Don’t panic!!
2 comments:
We won't panic, but we will pray. Keep the faith and stay strong, I guess this is one of those little bumps in the road.
Good luck Jack.
I remember you telling us on Sunday about the discomfort in your neck. glad it was checked out so quickly and being taken care of. will be thinking of you in the AM.
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