Dave started complaining yesterday about his leg. His calf was feeling stretched and sore. Normally this would be something you wouldn't think twice about - take an aspirin - let it rest a couple of days and forget about it.
Only we have a history.
3 weeks after we moved to Bellingham (8 whole years ago!) Dave was hospitalized for almost a week when it was discovered he had had multiple blood clots that formed in his right leg and had traveled to his lungs and stuck there - otherwise called in medical terms a Pulmonary Embolism. After moving to Bellingham he got really really sick. He was in such pain he couldn't even walk up the stairs and instead slept and spent all of his time in our big chair downstairs (after that we named the chair "the death chair"). He lost 25 lbs. We were naive - we thought he had maybe bruised a rib moving all of our junk from Seattle to Bellingham. Or maybe it was a pulled muscle in his chest - that's why he couldn't breath well. He went into a local walk in clinic and then was referred to a specialist. We visited the specialist a few times before he determined that something unusual was going on. Then it was to the hospital to get an ultrasound of his lungs. Then it was all a blur. He was admitted to critical care and put on a dangerously high dose of blood thinner to disintegrate the clots. He had to be watched 24 hours a day to make sure he didn't bleed internally or that the clots did not travel to his heart or his brain as they dislodged themselves from his leg and his lungs. It was really scary. At the time I had no idea how serious - and by serious I mean fatal - this condition could be. Oblivious me was visiting a couple of times a day with Avery (who was 1). When after days of being in the hospital, he was able to come home, one of the nurses said to him "I didn't think you were going to make it there for a while". I was floored. I can still feel the weight of guilt from not staying by his side during his hospital stay. The guilt of knowing he could have died and I would have been at home.
So when he started complaining again, I started worrying. It is just plain scary. I cannot help but to wander to "worse case scenarios" in my brain as I feel guilty about being a jerk yesterday or the day before - or both.
So fast-forward to today. He has the same feeling in his right leg as he did when his leg had blood clots in the veins. It is tight and painful. In the same spot. We insisted on getting into the doctor TODAY. I met him at the doctors office and we had an ultrasound. It was determined that he had inflammation of the superficial veins in his leg. He has no clots in the deep veins which is good news. His right leg is swollen 1/2 inch. We still have to keep an eye out for chest pain, fever, shortness of breath etc. It is just another reminder that I need to cherish every day with people important to me. I need to hold on to the important things and let go of everything else.
