I still get heart palpitations when I think about how close I was to losing my Sweetheart.
But, all is well that ends well so here is the lengthy story:
Mikey had been feeling sick ever since
his internship ended which was October 19th. He’d been getting frequent headaches, his legs were really
sore for no apparent reason, he as feeling fatigued and he had a cough that
didn’t seem to be from a cold and would not go away. We thought it might just
be exhaustion because he was doing his internship during the day, working at
night and taking care of Mabes in between. Oh and being a husband. No small feat
when you’re married to someone as needy as me. After about two weeks of feeling
crummy he went to the BYU-I Health Center. They ran some tests but weren’t sure
what was going on. The doctor said it sounded like a bacterial infection or a
blood clot. We decided to take the option of getting on antibiotics to see if
it would clear up instead of getting Doppler ultrasounds to check for blood
clots in his legs. Antibiotics were the cheaper option. His D-dimer test was
reading a little high, which pointed to a blood clot but we were told it could
be a false positive so antibiotics it was. I’m still kicking myself for not
having them do another D-dimer test just so we could completely rule out a
blood clot. Mikey started to feel better after being on the antibiotics for a
few days and so we believed we had figured out what it was. Then on the 5th day of
the antibiotic cycle he had a really bad allergic reaction to the medicine, his
lips were swollen and he could feel his throat swelling. He called the doctor, who
told him to stop taking that certain antibiotic and to begin take the other
kind they had prescribed in addition to taking Benadryl in case he had another
reaction. Originally it was a week on the first type and then 15 days on the
second type. He was still feeling better, very slowly but progress nonetheless.
He did go get a Doppler ultrasound on his legs to check for a blood clot. The
ultrasound tech said in his experience it didn’t look like a blood clot and he
didn’t find one so we thought we had that crossed off the list. We were still
having a consultation with the doctor about the ultrasound mind you. Sunday
night (November 4th) Mikey couldn’t sleep because he kept coughing. Around 4 am
he woke up and went to the living room to watch TV. He called me from the
living room and I wasn’t too thrilled. I thought it was one of his silly jokes
but when he started talking I could hear him struggling to breath. My heart
about stopped. I ran in the living room and he was leaning over and looked
awful. It was really painful for him to breathe and he didn’t feel like he was
getting much in. He was gasping. He wanted to know if he should go to the
Emergency Room…um….yeah like 3 hours ago!!!!!!! I told him I would grab Mabes
and get some more modest clothes on and drive him up but he wouldn’t let me. He
said he would just drive up. I was too freaked out to realize how bad of an
idea that was. But he did drive up all on his own and made it safe and sound.
About five minutes after he left I realized that was a really stupid decision
on my part and I was saying a continuous prayer until he called to tell
me he’d made it.
They began doing tests, another D-dimer
and once again it was elevated so they did a CT scan on his chest. Low and
behold- Mikey had a pulmonary embolism in his left lung, which means there was
a blood clot in the main artery. Once again my heart almost stopped. Everything
I had heard about blood clots made me believe that if one got into your lung
you didn’t have long until it was fatal.
They got him started on shot of blood
thinners, the shot begins working immediately and also on a pill form of blood
thinners, Coumadin. He had the shot every day for about a week, in addition to
the pill form, which he will have to continue taking for six months. We were
told he would have to stay in the hospital for at least three days so that they
could make sure he was on the right dosage of blood thinners. Apparently the
blood clot had worked its way up from his left leg into his lung. We are so
lucky they figured out in time what it was ailing him.
It’s extremely unusual for someone like
Mikey to get a blood clot. We were told they happen during or after pregnancy,
after a surgery, in smokers, in the aged or in those who have a very sedentary
lifestyle, like weigh 400lbs and never move off the couch, sedentary. They are
not supposed to happen to a 26 year old who is in very good health. This is why
the doctors had a hard time figuring out what it was. And why they are assuming
it’s something to do with genetics.
The pulmonary embolism caused a
pulmonary infarction, which basically means the blood clot in his lung caused
an obstruction in part of the pulmonary artery and so part of his lung wasn’t
getting its blood supply which caused it to die. That part of his lung will never be functioning again. It will scar over and
shouldn’t affect him at all unless he was climbing Mt. Everest or other really
high altitude places. Once it scars over and he’s recovered he should be able
to continue to run and be active without any discomfort or trouble breathing.
That is major blessing because Mikey is one active boy. Man.
The infarction caused his lung to
swell, which was extremely painful. Mikey said he’d never been in that much
pain. It was horrible watching him be in pain and not being able to do
anything. He couldn’t breathe and he coughed a lot, which hurt worse than
breathing. He coughed up blood often, which was so terrifying to me. In all the
movies the people die shortly after coughing up blood. It was never a good
sign. They put him on Morphine for the pain but it made him nauseous and
eventually throw-up. He was having a really rough go of it for the first two
days in the hospital let me tell you. On Tuesday (November 6th) he
started having pretty high fevers so they were trying to get those down and the
nurses were worried about him getting pneumonia so they were encouraging him to
breathe deeply (remember, that was painful) so that he would cough and keep
junk from settling in his lungs. He had no appetite and lost 9lbs in just a few
days.
Mabin and I spent as much time in the
hospital with Mikey as we could. I was able to skip most of my classes for the
first couple days, but there were two that I had to go to. I also had to get my
internship hours in for the week or else I wouldn’t get enough hours total. We
are blessed with truly wonderful friends. We have two wonderful friends that
took turns watching Mabin whenever I had to be in one of my classes or had to
do my internship hours. This is another time we’ve been so grateful for
Mabin’s content nature. He did marvelously at the hospital even though it
couldn’t have been very fun for him.
Mikey was able to come home on
Wednesday (November 7th) night. We had an in home oxygen concentrator brought to
our house, on doctor’s orders so that Mikey could continue to be on oxygen. He
had to sleep on the couch for about a week because he couldn’t breathe lying
flat. He was still in pain for another few days. On Wednesday (November 14th)
he wasn’t on oxygen all day and he started sleeping in bed again, he also went back
to work that night. I could tell he was feeling better when he was back to his
usual teasing and cooking.
We wouldn’t have made it without
friends who were so willing to help us without any notice. Our superb home
teachers from our previous ward gave Mikey a blessing on Monday even though I
called them later in the evening on FHE night. They were there within 15
minutes of the call. Trials like this help me to remember how important
friendships and service are.
We felt so loved by everyone’s concern
for our family. My mom (who lives in Oregon) offered to come stay as long as
needed, as did two of Mikey’s sisters, who live in Utah and have their own
families to look after.
The doctors aren’t sure why Mikey got a
blood clot but we can’t do any blood testing until he’s off Coumadin because it
will skew the results. So in six months we are setting up an appointment with a
hematologist that was recommended by our uncle to figure out what is going on.
We need to figure out if its genetics so we know what it will mean for our
children.
To any doctors out there, hopefully I
got all of this right; I’m just trying to remember what we were told by our
doctors.
