DVT, A Personal Diary

My wife came into the kitchen last Tuesday saying her calf was hurting.  I told her that he miniscule varicosities can be painful.  We both went to work.  I get a call at my place of business, which is a small hospital in south Texas.  I see that call is from my wife.  I was sitting at the front desk of the X-Ray department.  (Yes we call it X-Ray in south Texas), other places call it Radiology....and since we have CISCO phones, I saw it was my wife calling.  Cell phones do not work in our hospital.  Probably for a reason.  Too many people would be playing candy crush or angry birds.

She was at a large hospital in Houston in the ED.  I almost had a technicolor bowel movement.  She told me she had a pulmonary embolism.  Her O2 SATS were 82% on admission.  The did a leg U/S, and a chest CT.  Great. 

Problem was the source of embolism was her peroneal vein in her left leg.  Atypical!

Darn, Heck, and H-E-double L!

I clocked out, and went to lend a feeble hand in her admission process:  Wheeling her up to the fourth floor into a private room. (Nice)  And we got her some food.  My wife is a nurse, and is not a typical DVT patient.  She is lithe, active, and determined to have her way.  She gave me a list of stuff to bring from the house.  The list included pink slippers, a favorite pillow, toothbrush, comb etc.  I went home to gather things up and grabbed our son and gave him the news.

"Mom had SOB, and palpitations, and pain in her calf.  She has a blood clot in both of her pulmonary arteries" 

"What" said my son?

I explained it to him, and he shed tears.  I told him it would me OK.

We sprung her from the hospital, and she immediately started going through the discharge bills.   She found she was charged for two units of whole blood which she did not get in the IV.  Her OP prescriptions hit us like boulders: Coumadian, and a shot form of low-moleculoer weight form of heparin.  The shots would cost $275 a week.  Insurance did not cover it.

My wife is home now, and the doctor bills are mounting.  She has a pulmonologist, a blood doctor (Haematologist), PCC, and an endocrinologist. 

My wife is a nurse, and she is pissed off.

Discussion:  Most DVT arise from the above knee veins.  Her DVT is strange.  the peroneal veins are typically small veins that run on the inside of the calf, but they are deep veins anyway because they are accompanied by an artery.  Hat's off to the Sonographer that grabbed this one.  Sadly, many poorly trained sonographers do not scan the PTV's, or the peroneals.

She is doing well.

Sorry for the lapse in posts. it has been an interesting summer.

TJW