I am glad to be home from the hospital where I can blog again. I have missed you. At times I feared that I might never be able to say hello to you again…. but here I am. This is my story.
January 8th I had a terrible gall stone attack. The next morning I had gall bladder surgery. I went home from the hospital that same day and thought all was well.
That first week I seemed to be healing quickly.
I enjoyed playing with my grands who were visiting from Utah. I even took a trip to the beach with them. I thought recovering from gall bladder surgery was a piece of cake…I was wrong.
Before long it was February. I always make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day. I make homemade cards and goodie bags for family and friends.
My friend Louann and I made our traditional Valentine dinners for the missionaries. We had the Sister missionaries come to our house and we fed …..
… the elders the next day at Louann’s. I love doing this tradition but setting the tables and making the food took all of my energy. After that, I tried to make my Valentines and goodie bags but I didn’t have the strength. Every day I got weaker. I felt like my veins were filled with lead and I was too heavy to move.
Our grandson, Johnny, who is on the USA national gymnastics team, flew in on Valentine’s Day for a gymnastic meet near us. We were suppose to go to his meet here and then take him to Las Vegas where we would meet his family the following week for another big competition. I thought I would make my valentine gifts and send them to Utah from Vegas…. but it was not to be.
I started getting really sick on the 14th with violent shaking, chills and vomiting. I thought I had the flu. Saturday the 15th I got worse. That night I broke out with a terrible itchy rash all over. That is when I knew I had to go to the hospital.
It turns out that 1 in a 1,000 people have an extra bile duct called the Duct of Luschka. It is so rare and tiny they did not see it when they took out my gall bladder. For 5 weeks bile had been filling up my gut. 50% of people have bacteria in their bile. Of course I am one of those 50 percent. Strep began to grow inside me infecting the area where my gall balder used to be and my liver. When the infection got severe I broke out in the rash. I was very sick.
I was diagnosed with severe sepsis with acute organ dysfunction, post- procedural bile duct leak and liver abscess.
They treated me with IV antibiotics and put in 2 drains… one in the abdomen to drain out the bile and one in my liver to drain out the abscess. Getting those drains put in was torture in spite of the pain meds!! I also had surgery putting in a stint from my liver to my intestine to stop the bile leak.
I had lots of sweet visitors drop by to give me love and lift my spirits.
At the end of the 1st week not much was filling up the 2 drain bags so they pulled them out. I was told I could go home and be on IV antibiotics for a month through a pic line.
Getting the pic line in was not painful and was very interesting to watch. She located my largest veins with an ultrasound machine. Then she put a Y shaped magnet (as seen on the screen) over my heart. She then guided a wire through my veins to my heart with the help of the magnet. She inserted a catheter over the wire and then pulled out the wire.
My 17 inch pic line was in and I was good to go home……. or so I thought……
My infectious disease doctor, Dr. Wong, was worried about sending me home. She wanted me to have another CT scan to check my liver before I left. I thought I was going for a routine scan. I was shocked after the scan when they started draping me in surgical drapes and told me I had to have another drain put in because my liver abscess was bigger than it had been when I’d arrived a week before.
That was my lowest point.
I said no. I cried.
I told them I’d rather die than go through that pain again.
They convinced me I had no choice so they put in the drain. Again, pain meds did little to relieve the torture. I guess most people get by OK with the pain meds but my liver is so inflamed with infection I was in agony.
Again lots of sweet friends came to visit me.
My room began to fill up with cards and flowers. I felt loved.
I then learned I am one in a million. Instead of having 1 large liver strep abscess, I have 7 small ones. That is why the 1st liver bag stopped draining and they pulled it out. They have never seen this before. It makes the infection very hard to cure because they can’t put in 7 drains (thank goodness) but each abscess needs to be drained to heal.
Elders from our church came to the hospital to give me another Priesthood blessing. In that blessing I was told the Lord would bless me and bless my doctor to know how to care for me. I felt uplifted and peaceful after that blessing.
That night my right arm started hurting and turning red. The surgeon knowing I’m “one in a million” sent me to have an ultrasound looking for a blood clot. It was negative showing no clot.
The next day they wrote my dismissal papers and I was ready to go home when Dr. Wong came in again. She was convinced I should not go home with my arm hurting. Her colleges disagreed and even yelled at her but she held her ground and found an off duty surgeon who was willing to do a venogram on me.
The venogram showed that I have developed a 17 inch blood clot, acute deep venous thrombosis, everywhere the pic line had been from my arm to my heart. Millions of people have pic lines with no problems. My doctors have never seen a clot that big before. Now I am one in millions! The ultrasound didn’t see the clot because the pic line hid it but the venogram was able to see it. I would have died on the way home if I had left the hospital. Again Dr. Wong saved my life. She said she had been praying about me and God told her not to send me home. (For the whole story read my last blog post.)
My case was complicated because I am allergic to heparin which is the best medicine for blood clots. I was treated with IV argatroban (at $400 a bag) around the clock for 5 days.
On the evening of my 22 day in the hospital I got to come home. I am on Warfarin pills for blood thinner now. They say it will take 3 months for my large clot to dissolve. Since they had to take the pic line out I can’t be on IV antibiotics so we are hoping the antibiotic pills will work the magic needed to cure the liver abscesses. When you leave the hospital they assess your risk factor between 1 and 10. They put me at 15!!! Would any of you like to sell me a life insurance policy?
I’ll admit this has been a real pain! I’m a little discouraged. I was just getting over our accident and started feeling better a few months ago. I was going to the gym to water aerobics 5 days a week and walking 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day. I was getting stronger and feeling good…. and then this happened. Our awful car accident was 3 years ago this month. Who would have thought I would be almost flat down again 3 years later????
This is why I can say….. with documentation….. that I am one in millions. Not that I am proud of it or happy about it…. but….. Oh well…. what is ….is.
I have much to be thankful for and many blessing to count. I know that my life has been spared through the power of the priesthood and prayers. I am thankful for the love and good wishes I’ve been sent. I know that I am blessed.
1Thessalonians 5:16 says ” Rejoice evermore.” I have much to rejoice about.
I hope you are rejoicing too. Hugs, Grammy Lura
