Skip to day 20

I guess as I blog all this I will skip around from day to day. Today (Tuesday May 11, 2010) was day 20 since this all began. This has been a LONG 4 days, which is kind of funny as they all have been long. Friday they found a blood clot in her leg. Her feet had been swollen since the surgery and her INR (blood clotting time) had been high so the dr at the rehab ordered a doppler (ultrasound) of her legs. I had just talked with the dr for the first time that morning and did not know that the dr had ordered this test. I was sitting at home resting and preparing to go to a fundraising concert that my husband had put together for the youth group. I just felt a huge sense that I needed to call my mother. I dialed her cell phone and it rang and rang. I hung up thinking to myself should I drive to the rehab facility before going on to the concert. Within 30 seconds of that thought I received a call from my cousin saying my mom had called her by accident and wanted me to return her call. I spoke to the nurse around 5:30pm saying she thought she needed to go to the hospital and be evaluated for a DVT filter (Deep Vein Thrombosis) but my mom didn't want to go to the hospital. I asked the nurse if I should come and she said she was quite upset. So I drove to the rehab and spoke with the nurse she explained everything to me and then I went to talk with my mother. She decided to go to the hospital so around 7pm we were headed next door to the hospital, via an ambulance. We had to go through E.R. again since it was after hours. We had the same dr as the first night. He was sure that she did not have a clot with her IRN level high and insisted that they would do another doppler as he stated the test was VERY dependent on the person doing it. The test came back that she did indeed have a clot and that they would be admitting her. She got to her room at 1am probably the exact same time as the first time we had been there. Then the wait began. The admitting dr did not come until around 6pm on Saturday. He said he would be calling in a vascular surgeon but nothing would probably happen until Monday.
Well Monday came and went and no surgeon. Today I decided if we did not see this dr we would try and get her transferred back to the other hospital that had 5 vascular surgeons. At 11am the surgeon appeared. I said "wow I was beginning to think you were a figment of our imaginations". Hi said "she was just admitted last night right". I said "no Friday night". He informed us he had just been contacted last night.
He began by talking about what might have caused the clot, but of course I know they will never know for sure. He was pretty convinced it was the surgery. He said that he would do the filter but that she was on the fringe of criteria to have it done and didn't suggest it. I told him I had done some research on filter and asked if it stopped smaller clots and he said no. I asked my mom what she wanted to do and she in turn asked the dr what he suggested. He said "if I step back and look at everything I would say no". So my mom decided not to have the procedure done. So we were back to square one. I went home at 2pm and left my aunt and cousin to visit for a while as told her to call when her admitting dr got in. She called around 3:30 to have me talk with the dr. He was totally rude and told me I did not need to be involved with her move back to rehab. My personal opinion is that the surgeon was upset when he found out she had been there for almost 4 days and let the admitting dr know what for. I will be writing a letter to the hospital about him. He is the second admitting dr that we have had problems with, more on that later.
I received a call around 4pm from my friend Charlene (my angel) saying she would be moved at 4:30pm. Another friend went up at 4pm to set with her for a while. I phoned at 5:30pm to find out she was finishing her meal and then would be headed to rehab. I phoned the rehab to see what would happen since she did not get the filter. They were all surprised and was not sure what will happen. Maybe I am "old fashioned" but do you do rehab with a clot in your leg??? They assured me this was a good question and that the dr there would make that decision in the morning when she got there. IF she is not doing rehab her insurance will not pay so tomorrow we will see what happens.