ERnormous Waste of Time
Well, what I had feared came to fruition last night. I found myself waiting for hours in Brigham & Women's ER for nothing and still do not have a single answer. Let me take you back to the beginning of my day yesterday...
I went to my local hospital first thing yesterday morning for my glucose test. After the second blood draw, I don't think the tech put the bandage on tightly enough because by the time I got home, a large part of my sleeve was soaked with blood. I suppose this is to be expected on the lovenox, it's just never happened to me before. Cut to a few hours later, I began experiencing acute, intense pain shooting down my left arm (the arm with the bigger clot and also the arm used for the blood draw.) This pain was different from the 'clot pain' I've been having - especially in it's acuteness and the way it was shooting down my entire arm. But the place it's originating from is exactly where the occlusion is and I can feel that it's the same place where most of my clot pain stems from. I waited for a few hours to see if the pain would subside, but it did not. I tried to page my vascular doc, but she was "out of hospital and on emergency page only." So after going back & forth in my brain for a good while, I decided that I was better off safe than sorry and went to the ER just to make sure it wasn't anything serious.
I guess that vascular ultrasound is very specific and can only be done by trained technicians and, as I expected, all of those people were gone for the day and there was not one single person who could do an ultrasound. Without said ultrasound, there was no way for anyone at the ER to help me or figure out what was going on. Since my case is so out-of-the-norm and my clots so mysterious, the ER docs had no idea what to make of the situation. They did page my vascular doc, but she never returned the call. So they sent her an email stating that they recommend I be seen in 3-5 days, offered me pain meds, and sent me on my merry way. The only thing I can hope will come from this is that my clot doc will read the email from the ER and start to take me more seriously.
I am not sure if the sudden pain was brought on by the blood draws or just coincidence. I still have the pain in my arm this morning, and felt like the pain around my right clot was increasing last night as well....but I did take two ambien to turn my brain off, so it could have been just a dream. I really didn't want to write such a cynical post but feel like if I'm going to be true to this blog and to these health updates, I have to be honest. I so wish I had something clever, witty or cheery to sum things up, but the truth is that this is a shitty ending to a shitty week and I can't wait for the new week to start. I promise to be in better spirits next post :)
*Update: Not a dream after all, there is pain on my right side as well.
I went to my local hospital first thing yesterday morning for my glucose test. After the second blood draw, I don't think the tech put the bandage on tightly enough because by the time I got home, a large part of my sleeve was soaked with blood. I suppose this is to be expected on the lovenox, it's just never happened to me before. Cut to a few hours later, I began experiencing acute, intense pain shooting down my left arm (the arm with the bigger clot and also the arm used for the blood draw.) This pain was different from the 'clot pain' I've been having - especially in it's acuteness and the way it was shooting down my entire arm. But the place it's originating from is exactly where the occlusion is and I can feel that it's the same place where most of my clot pain stems from. I waited for a few hours to see if the pain would subside, but it did not. I tried to page my vascular doc, but she was "out of hospital and on emergency page only." So after going back & forth in my brain for a good while, I decided that I was better off safe than sorry and went to the ER just to make sure it wasn't anything serious.
I guess that vascular ultrasound is very specific and can only be done by trained technicians and, as I expected, all of those people were gone for the day and there was not one single person who could do an ultrasound. Without said ultrasound, there was no way for anyone at the ER to help me or figure out what was going on. Since my case is so out-of-the-norm and my clots so mysterious, the ER docs had no idea what to make of the situation. They did page my vascular doc, but she never returned the call. So they sent her an email stating that they recommend I be seen in 3-5 days, offered me pain meds, and sent me on my merry way. The only thing I can hope will come from this is that my clot doc will read the email from the ER and start to take me more seriously.
I am not sure if the sudden pain was brought on by the blood draws or just coincidence. I still have the pain in my arm this morning, and felt like the pain around my right clot was increasing last night as well....but I did take two ambien to turn my brain off, so it could have been just a dream. I really didn't want to write such a cynical post but feel like if I'm going to be true to this blog and to these health updates, I have to be honest. I so wish I had something clever, witty or cheery to sum things up, but the truth is that this is a shitty ending to a shitty week and I can't wait for the new week to start. I promise to be in better spirits next post :)
*Update: Not a dream after all, there is pain on my right side as well.
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