Let's Take a Trip!

We had to take another trip to the ER today but luckily it was to our local hospital and not to UVA.

Over the last few days, my right leg has developed a large red patch on the area between my knee and ankle (at least where an ankle would normally be located if it weren't that my legs were the size of elephants). Each day the patch has been getting redder and larger. It's warm to the touch. The home health care nurse who put on my wound vac and the PT assistant both said to keep an eye on it. The calf on that leg has become very sore as well. Today when my regular nurse came to change my stomach dressing, she said that she didn't like the look of my leg and that we really needed to be safe than sorry. Things would be very serious if it was a blood clot and we needed to find that out.

Before the nurse even had things packed up, Butch had the car pulled around to the front and my shoes ready to take me to the ER. We weren't going to let a blood clot be what gets me in the end after all I've been through.

At the ER, they did a sonogram.  There were no blood clots found on either leg. They determined that it's phlebitis. I'm on 2 regular aspirin every 4 hours, however I'm starting out with 1 aspirin to see if it affects my stomach at all. If all is okay, I will increase it to 2 aspirin every 4 hours.

Leaving the house is not easy. Being away from a bathroom is not easy. I realize that this wound healing process is going to take quite a large chunk of time. I know that I'll gather more and more strength each and every day. I hope that after I get all this strength back, the new chemo that I be put on doesn't take it all away again. Time will tell. I go back to Dr. Adams for a post op visit on August 30th and then to Dr. Major, the oncologist, on September 10th. He'll discuss chemo with us then.

Here's hoping that the rest of the evening will be quiet an uneventful!