Christmas miracle?????

Yesterday, our patient visited her skin graft doctor at UAMS, who she really likes, and learned that her elbow is doing well and this is good news. He also looked at the areas on her left thigh where the skin had been "borrowed" and they have been healing well also. She had concerns however about the swelling in that leg that had slowly been going down but in the past few days had actually gotten worse.

They had originally told her that the swelling was due to the injuries (knee scrape, skin removal, and bone from hip for neck fusion) and would continue to recede and be normal before too long. This leg is the same one that a blood clot had been located in during her time in ICU and they had placed a filter within her vein to catch it, should it break loose. Dr. Yuen, her skin doc said she should not be having this much swelling and it was most likely a vascular issue so he sent her over to see the vascular doctors immediately and they found she has several blood clots.

They decided to put her on blood thinners for the next 5 days via two shots a day in her stomach. They will have another look at her at the end of these 5 days but said they want her on blood thinner pills (Cumadin) for a month. They had taken her off of them prior to the arm surgery that she was supposed to have had a few weeks ago. Now, on these meds, she needs to be very careful not to cut herself in any way, including shaving or flossing. Of course, the arm surgery must not be considered until this situation has been fully corrected.

I'm so sorry for Mom to have her arm surgery delayed for so much longer because the pain is really difficult and she is getting tired of having it. She is still in good spirits, however, and wishes to remind everyone to continue praying for her, especially now. She said she didn't want to post any bad news at Christmas but she knows she needs your prayers over this blood clot issue.

Thanks go to Pam Anderson and Kimber Rule, neighbors who are also nurses, who are working together to help out where they need it and Pam for giving her these two daily shots this week.

Leslie is arriving tomorrow to stay for the week and my family hopes to visit for a couple of days as well.

Merry Christmas!