and thankful to have made it 
on the 9th was admitted for a bit of routine, but major surgery. that went well but i developed blood clots in my leg and lungs that weren't diagnosed until my discharge was being processed on saturday.
uh oh.
lots of blood-thinning meds and i seem to be fine now, though on thinners for 6-9 months.
i've never been hospitalized before, so have some observations to pass on:
* leg / calf cramps can be an indicator of dvt's / clots. if you've had medical treatment and develop leg cramps, talk to your doc asap.
* don't trust that nurses assistants / nurses will recognize your "general" comments about calf cramps as an indicator of serious problems - mine didn't, and both my wife and i mentioned the issue to several staff members. (i had foot massagers strapped on my feet to prevent clots so that seemed to be "good enough" for the staff.)
***if your legs hurt, raise the issue with your doctor asap***
* before i agreed to the surgery, i checked with a close friend who is a doc re his thoughts: yup, pretty routine, some pain during recovery but since my health problem would be resolved, better to have it done than not.
in hindsight, i would have asked each of my docs (general, surgeon and friend), "post-surgery, what are 3 warning signs i should be aware of that "things" are awry. each of these people i spoke with after being discharged said, "leg cramps are a classic sign of clots but 'i' didn't mention it because they are relatively rare."
* get off morphine as quickly as possible because (from my point of view) the pain relief isn't worth the impact it makes to your body systems (respiration, pulse, bp, etc)
* when you have friends / family in the hospital, drop them a card / note / make a quick phone call to remind them you're thinking of them. i received mail, calls and visitors and each of them was welcome... though, sometimes, a bit longer in visit-time than i might have wanted.
* even for "routine" surgery, do yourself a favor and make sure your affairs are in order. in the week prior to surgery, i reviewed and refreshed everything to ensure my family was taken care of properly so when i got the news of the complication, i didn't have to worry about "that thing i left undone." because nothing was left undone.
thx for listening.
hal
on the 9th was admitted for a bit of routine, but major surgery. that went well but i developed blood clots in my leg and lungs that weren't diagnosed until my discharge was being processed on saturday.
uh oh.
lots of blood-thinning meds and i seem to be fine now, though on thinners for 6-9 months.
i've never been hospitalized before, so have some observations to pass on:
* leg / calf cramps can be an indicator of dvt's / clots. if you've had medical treatment and develop leg cramps, talk to your doc asap.
* don't trust that nurses assistants / nurses will recognize your "general" comments about calf cramps as an indicator of serious problems - mine didn't, and both my wife and i mentioned the issue to several staff members. (i had foot massagers strapped on my feet to prevent clots so that seemed to be "good enough" for the staff.)
***if your legs hurt, raise the issue with your doctor asap***
* before i agreed to the surgery, i checked with a close friend who is a doc re his thoughts: yup, pretty routine, some pain during recovery but since my health problem would be resolved, better to have it done than not.
in hindsight, i would have asked each of my docs (general, surgeon and friend), "post-surgery, what are 3 warning signs i should be aware of that "things" are awry. each of these people i spoke with after being discharged said, "leg cramps are a classic sign of clots but 'i' didn't mention it because they are relatively rare."
* get off morphine as quickly as possible because (from my point of view) the pain relief isn't worth the impact it makes to your body systems (respiration, pulse, bp, etc)
* when you have friends / family in the hospital, drop them a card / note / make a quick phone call to remind them you're thinking of them. i received mail, calls and visitors and each of them was welcome... though, sometimes, a bit longer in visit-time than i might have wanted.
* even for "routine" surgery, do yourself a favor and make sure your affairs are in order. in the week prior to surgery, i reviewed and refreshed everything to ensure my family was taken care of properly so when i got the news of the complication, i didn't have to worry about "that thing i left undone." because nothing was left undone.
thx for listening.
hal
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except for the 30+ lbs i've lost - a real + in my book. tomorrow i see the surgeon to have staples removed and hope to have his blessing to be able to drive one of our auto tranny vehicles this week, then add light bicycling next week. i may be a bit aggressive on timing, but i've been off my bike for 3 weeks now and need some fresh air over my gills.
