If this came out of nowhere, I would ask the DRs if she needs to be on blood thinners as a part of her regular routine.
I am hoping the best for your wife. This is a predicament to be in.
They are checking for genetic clotting disorders and it's a possibility she will be on blood thinners for the rest of her life. She always had bad migraines and one of the doctors said the blood thinner might help reduce them which is a plus I suppose.
After a scare like that plus her medical history, unfortunately it may be best.
If this came out of nowhere, I would ask the DRs if she needs to be on blood thinners as a part of her regular routine.
I am hoping the best for your wife. This is a predicament to be in.
They are checking for genetic clotting disorders and it's a possibility she will be on blood thinners for the rest of her life. She always had bad migraines and one of the doctors said the blood thinner might help reduce them which is a plus I suppose.
After a scare like that plus her medical history, unfortunately it may be best.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
It's not going to be easy the meds that our insurance covers requires frequent blood tests. They have to use an ultrasound just to take blood or put in iv's. She has an extended dwell piv in right now, it's a long iv(8cm in the vein) that can stay in for 29 days. They had to put that in just to do her blood draws because it would have been impossible to stick her each time. She has very tiny veins.
It's not going to be easy the meds that our insurance covers requires frequent blood tests. They have to use an ultrasound just to take blood or put in iv's. She has an extended dwell piv in right now, it's a long iv(8cm in the vein) that can stay in for 29 days. They had to put that in just to do her blood draws because it would have been impossible to stick her each time. She has very tiny veins.
This sounds all good! They are figuring out how to help her. You went to the right DRs!
Sorry you are having to deal with Nurse Ratchet types. Hopefully y'all can go home soon.
It wouldn't have been bad if Trisha didn't have issues with her veins. That extended dwell IV was just for blood draws. We had to argue with some of them because they wanted to stick her even after we explained about the special IV. That's not the most reassuring thing knowing half of them never bothered to look in the system to see the note. It's been way more hassle than it ever should have been. Her heparin levels needed to stabilize so she could transition to pills. They were supposed to turn the Heparin IV off before the blood draws. Well I came back from picking up some food for her and there they were taking blood with the Heparin still running. :mad: Who knows how many times they did it wrong. The unstable levels is what's keeping her here.
Sorry you are having to deal with Nurse Ratchet types. Hopefully y'all can go home soon.
It wouldn't have been bad if Trisha didn't have issues with her veins. That extended dwell IV was just for blood draws. We had to argue with some of them because they wanted to stick her even after we explained about the special IV. That's not the most reassuring thing knowing half of them never bothered to look in the system to see the note. It's been way more hassle than it ever should have been. Her heparin levels needed to stabilize so she could transition to pills. They were supposed to turn the Heparin IV off before the blood draws. Well I came back from picking up some food for her and there they were taking blood with the Heparin still running. :mad: Who knows how many times they did it wrong. The unstable levels is what's keeping her here.
The medical field is a gamble like any other. I've had good and bad Dentists, DRs and Nurses. Family members have to know what is going on and stay in the fight intensively.
She's doing very good despite the few setbacks. Her mobility is almost back to normal, there's been just a few dizzy spells. The drug she's going on is Coumadin/Warfarin, it's an old drug and frequent blood test's are needed. They we're talking about having to train me on how to do something concerning the medication. I've seen my wife go through soo much crap way more than most people would in a lifetime, she's a very strong woman and I'm lucky to have her.
Sorry with your bad experience with the Nurses. It seems they did a TEE to check her heart (transesophageal echocardiography). Probably to check for valve leakage, a hole in her septum, etc. I don't understand why they don't use her deep venous catheter to take blood, or give medications....as a nuclear medicin nurse myself i love patients who have a DVC or portacad. Maybe they aren't allowed to use it? There are some risks involved in using a DVC, mainly infection risks. She should tell the nurses she already has a venous entrance. Can't think of any reason why a nurse would try to do it the hard way.
But alas, older nurses tend to loose thei patience and empathy after working in the field too long. Just like cops need to grow calluses on their soul to survive the daily tsunami of misery so do nurses. It's a hard job. But i understand that it's hard for you to see your wife suffering and the feeling of loss of control.
Sending prayers and regards.
As with your bad experience with the Nurses. It seems they did a TEE to check her heart (transesophageal echocardiography). Probably to check for valve leakage, a hole in her septum, etc. I don't understand why they don't use her deep venous catheter to take blood, or give medications....as a nuclear medicin nurse myself i love patients who have a DVC or portacad. Maybe they aren't allowed to use it? There are some risks involved in using a DVC, mainly infection risks. She should tell the nurses she already has a venous entrance. Can't think of any reason why a nurse would try to do it the hard way.
But alas, older nurses tend to loose thei patience and empathy after working in the field too long. Just like cops need to grow calluses on their soul to survive the daily tsunami of misery so do nurses. It's a hard job. But i understand that it's hard for you to see your wife suffering and the feeling of loss of control.
Sending prayers and regards.
She had some pulmonary embolisms in her lungs about 2yrs ago. They said usually clots get caught by the lungs unless there's a hole in the heart that lets the clot bypass the lungs and get to the brain. They do pull blood from the PIV but it was a special order that had to be approved first. They said 99% of the time that don't draw blood from IVs. That meant most of the nurses and a few of the phlebotomist argued with her saying they couldn't do it. Out of all the nurses she had only one ever heard of doing it that way. That's what was aggravating because it was all on her charts but they never read them.
There's also a lot of young nurses that are still learning so sometimes it feels like we know more than they do, probably not true but sometimes it does seem that way.
I know it's a hard job but there's plenty of people that's been doing it just as long and they still have excellent bedside manners.
Hmmm. I see. It isn't a SOP to draw blood from a DVC. Due to the fact that all kind of medication, fluids, etc flows IN there it's normally not recommended to sample blood at this spot. Some deep venous catheters have a anticoagulant coating to keep them from clogging up. Sampling blood to check your wife's coagulation factors from this DVC is normally not recommended from the manufacturer. But a nurse should still try to use common sense and check with the Doctor to find a solution. Apparently the doctor decided that the patients comfort, rightfully, is more important than the possibility of a bad reading. The nurses should also have the patients comfort as a top priority (whenever feasable) and just ignoring her because they think they can't take blood from a DVC is wrong and they should check the doctor's order. I understand it's tiring to explain this every time. Maybe you could talk to the head nurse? There's a briefing every shift. She should inform her staff that the doctor took a non standard decision in your wife's case? Or you could ask the doctor to write a note about her situation that she keeps with her that you can show the nurses that it is on doctors orders to sample her blood thrue her catheter instead of trying to find a vein. Just thinking out loud.
Trisha is doing great but not out of the hospital yet. She will be able to go home when her INR(test to determine bloods clotting speed) needs to be higher than 2. It was 1.3 yesterday and 1.6 this morning so maybe tomorrow it might be high enough.
The only time in my life I ever had any type of blood clotting at all is when I had a vein removed from an injured leg back around 2014. The Doctor at the time said that after the vein was removed that it appeared on an MRI that I had a type of thrombosis in that leg at that time. However on my follow up appointment the Doctor assured me that my thrombosis pretty much cleared up after using a popular blood thinner for a couple of weeks. Once the thrombosis cleared up they immediately took me off of the blood thinner ( Eloquis).
I've heard that blood clots are extremely dangerous for someone in my age range ( 67). Also in my case of thrombosis the doctor said I had several "mini-clots" and no big blood clots at all. The Doctor said that it was common for someone my age to experience what I had at the time. It did seem that the blood thinner medications along with drinking a lot of water that the problem was eliminated quickly. The Doctor never seemed to be overly concerned but did demand that I did not work at the time and that I stayed on my medications. It all worked out fortunately. I find this thread interesting because I've had several friends and family members who have battled with blood clots. It sure seems like a lot of people have had more than their share of serious health problems in the past 3 to 5 years.
Finally going home today! She's so excited to be out of this place. There's still a long road ahead full of meds and blood tests. Hopefully we can get some better insurance to get her on one of the newer blood thinners that doesn't need periodic tests. There's a few foods she has to stay away from, mostly greens, but that doesn't bother her any.
