well, it turns out the wife doesn't need surgery; a small bit of good news after a lot of bad.
she had the ankle set and casted yesterday, and will remain in a cast for the next 6 weeks. she's in a considerable amount of pain, but that too will pass soon enough. before you know it, she'll be hobbling around, then the cast will be off and she'll back up on those rocks.
we got lucky, too, in that no hematoma developed as a result of being on Coumadin. bleeding to death isn't really a concern in something like this, but hematomas aren't uncommon from soft tissue trauma. however, the swelling and bruising she experienced was normal.
and not needing surgery means she can remain on Coumadin, which is good because she'll be idle for some time, which is a risk factor for developing further blood clots.
anyway, all in all she's doing well. she fell off the horse (and hurt herself) but she's climbing back in the saddle again.
i received a very nice email today from Rachel Bunting letting me know that my poem where have you gone, Jack Kevorkian? appears as a poem of the week on Kendall A. Bell's website and that she liked the poem very much. i don't recall submitting to him (though it IS entirely possible that i did), so he probably found it on my website (or another). i'm honored to have the poem as poem of the week, and gladder still that it touched someone enough for them to email me. thank you Kendall and Rachel for your support and kind words.
Showing posts with label blood clots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blood clots. Show all posts
27 February 2007
22 February 2007
updates
my wife got both her legs ultrasounded (is that the past tense of the verb ultrasound? it sounds weird). anyway, she got them done and there are no clots in her legs. there shouldn't have been, but the ultrasound was performed just to be 100% certain. so, it looks like this weekend will be when we take her off the blood-thinners. i'd be a liar if i said i wasn't nervous about this whole thing. most likely, though, she'll end up back on them for life. if you're gonna roll the dice, you might as well stack the odds in your favor as much as you can.
on the poetry front, Brian McGettrick has accepted two of my poems (to not think of an elephant and Perspective from the 10,000 Foot View) for his guest-edited issue of remark. (which is due out sometime this spring or summer). i also will have a poem in C. Allen Rearick's guest-edited issue (a tangle of arms and hair), due out very soon, and will have two more poems (Sins of the Father and why i wish we never met) in a later, regularly edited issue sometime later this year.
also, i received word that one of the 18 poems i wrote for my wife about her ordeal, and our attempts at dealing with it, has been accepted by David Greenspan of Butcher Shop Press.
David wrote a diatribe lamenting the current state of poetry, and soliciting for poems that we "beautiful". i sent him a few of the poems about our recent issues, and told him that though "there might not be the beauty of a fucking daffodil in a field...or a goddamn sunset behind the smog of a forest fire...but i'll be damned if there isn't beauty in escaping death and coming out on the other side..."
he apparently agreed. the poem First Night Home was accepted and will appear in that issue.
other than this, there's nothing much else to report. the Guerilla Poetics Project is still going strong, with many new operative and 64 registered finds.
on the poetry front, Brian McGettrick has accepted two of my poems (to not think of an elephant and Perspective from the 10,000 Foot View) for his guest-edited issue of remark. (which is due out sometime this spring or summer). i also will have a poem in C. Allen Rearick's guest-edited issue (a tangle of arms and hair), due out very soon, and will have two more poems (Sins of the Father and why i wish we never met) in a later, regularly edited issue sometime later this year.
also, i received word that one of the 18 poems i wrote for my wife about her ordeal, and our attempts at dealing with it, has been accepted by David Greenspan of Butcher Shop Press.
David wrote a diatribe lamenting the current state of poetry, and soliciting for poems that we "beautiful". i sent him a few of the poems about our recent issues, and told him that though "there might not be the beauty of a fucking daffodil in a field...or a goddamn sunset behind the smog of a forest fire...but i'll be damned if there isn't beauty in escaping death and coming out on the other side..."
he apparently agreed. the poem First Night Home was accepted and will appear in that issue.
other than this, there's nothing much else to report. the Guerilla Poetics Project is still going strong, with many new operative and 64 registered finds.
13 February 2007
the verdict
well, the wife got her angiogram read by the pulmonologist.
everything is fully resolved!
however, she will remain on Coumadin for another 2 weeks (to make the treatment a full 6 months), just to be safe, then she'll have ultrasounds performed on her legs (to ensure that no clots are hanging out there, either) and if everything is clean we have a decision to make:
the doctor said she can either remain on Coumadin for life (which brings with it a 1% chance of bleeding to death) or she stop taking it (which brings about a 5% of a second clotting event). those percentages are pretty much even, so we really don't know what to do. the doctor, even, couldn't tell us. he said her case is unique in that she had no risk factors, and she was so young, so they'll have to play it by ear.
i think we're going to experiment with taking her off of Coumadin for a few weeks, get some genetic testing done to rule out those rare but serious disorders, then see how it goes.
i suppose the really good news about all of this is that the treatment worked and those massive clots in her lungs (she saw both angiograms -- the first one from 6 months ago and the one from yesterday -- and she said it was shocking how large the clots in her lungs were) are gone.
everything is fully resolved!
however, she will remain on Coumadin for another 2 weeks (to make the treatment a full 6 months), just to be safe, then she'll have ultrasounds performed on her legs (to ensure that no clots are hanging out there, either) and if everything is clean we have a decision to make:
the doctor said she can either remain on Coumadin for life (which brings with it a 1% chance of bleeding to death) or she stop taking it (which brings about a 5% of a second clotting event). those percentages are pretty much even, so we really don't know what to do. the doctor, even, couldn't tell us. he said her case is unique in that she had no risk factors, and she was so young, so they'll have to play it by ear.
i think we're going to experiment with taking her off of Coumadin for a few weeks, get some genetic testing done to rule out those rare but serious disorders, then see how it goes.
i suppose the really good news about all of this is that the treatment worked and those massive clots in her lungs (she saw both angiograms -- the first one from 6 months ago and the one from yesterday -- and she said it was shocking how large the clots in her lungs were) are gone.
30 January 2007
down goes frazier...
well, just received a letter yesterday from Greg Edwards, editor of Naked Knuckle, informing me that he has decided to call it quits. this sucks. Naked Knuckle quickly became a favorite of mine, and was consistently full of great poetry. the design, too, was original and quirky. anyway, RIP Naked Knuckle. another will come in to fill the void, no doubt, i just hope it's as good as NK.
on a personal note, my dual-language (English-French) chapbook, the uncertainty principle, was published by Eric Dejaeger's Microbe Editions. unfortunately, they are not for sale as all copies were given to the subscribers to Microbe. fortunately, i receive 20 copies to do with what i please. unfortunately, i neglected to give Eric my new address and they have now been lost in transit. regardless, i'm proud of this book and want to thank Eric for translating my poems and finding them keen enough to collect into a book.
lastly, this Friday my wife, Julee, will get her 6 month lung xray to make sure the clot has fully resolved. if so, she will be taken off Coumadin (gulp!) and we'll start the next phase of our lives. obviously, the clot being gone is a good thing, a very good thing, but being removed from Coumadin scares me as there is always the possibility another clot could form. she go through an extensive round of genetic testing in a few weeks to check out all the known culprits, and if she's clean...it's pretty much a wait and see thing. if she does happen to have one of these extremely rare disorders (please, no!), then she'll be put back on Coumadin for life. anyway, i'll post the results, in case you're interested.
on a personal note, my dual-language (English-French) chapbook, the uncertainty principle, was published by Eric Dejaeger's Microbe Editions. unfortunately, they are not for sale as all copies were given to the subscribers to Microbe. fortunately, i receive 20 copies to do with what i please. unfortunately, i neglected to give Eric my new address and they have now been lost in transit. regardless, i'm proud of this book and want to thank Eric for translating my poems and finding them keen enough to collect into a book.
lastly, this Friday my wife, Julee, will get her 6 month lung xray to make sure the clot has fully resolved. if so, she will be taken off Coumadin (gulp!) and we'll start the next phase of our lives. obviously, the clot being gone is a good thing, a very good thing, but being removed from Coumadin scares me as there is always the possibility another clot could form. she go through an extensive round of genetic testing in a few weeks to check out all the known culprits, and if she's clean...it's pretty much a wait and see thing. if she does happen to have one of these extremely rare disorders (please, no!), then she'll be put back on Coumadin for life. anyway, i'll post the results, in case you're interested.
02 October 2006
for what are we paying?
my wife is required to get her blood thinning levels (known as an International Normalize Ratio; or an INR) checked every so often. She has been on Coumadin for six weeks now (with four and a half months to go, at least) and in the beginning her levels will fluctuate as the doctors try to pinpoint the correct dosage for her body chemistry and eating habits (certain foods can counteract the effectivity of Coumadin).
a therapeutic INR level is between 2.0 and 3.0 (where a 1.0 is "normal"). she has gone to the clinic weekly to get it checked out, and it's fluctuated rather wildly. it rose up to 3.7 three weeks ago, whereupon her dose was adjusted. it dropped the subsequent week to 2.4 (just about where she needs to be) and was told to come back in two weeks. being the vigilant and intelligent girl she is, she went back the next week (just last week) surmising that without an adjustment it is likely her INR had continued to plummet.
it had dropped to 2.0.
then, the doctor told her to come back in a month without adjusting her dosage! A MONTH! he obviously didn't review her chart, or the trend of her levels, or anything like that. anything BELOW a 2.0 and she is at risk to have another clot. jesus h. christ!
well, my vigilant and intelligent wife KNEW a month wasn't right as her levels had been steadily dropping, and who was to say it plateaued at 2.0? she went back this week to get it tested and lo and behold! it was at 1.6! well below the therapeutic level. if my wife wasn't vigilant and intelligent, she would've been walking around with an increased chance of having another thrombic episode, and we would've been through the same hell we just went through six weeks ago.
so, my question is this: what the hell are we paying this guy for, exactly?
insight? no.
concern? no.
expertise? no.
incomptence? apparently.
apathy? definitely!
i can tell you this, we will no longer be paying him a dime. we're looking for another clinic that can handle the workload; with doctors who care, understand trends, and with the time (or ethics) to do their job right.
and all of this now reminds me of a little joke:
Q. what do call a person who graduates last in his class in medical school?
A. doctor.
it appears we found ourselves such a guy.
a therapeutic INR level is between 2.0 and 3.0 (where a 1.0 is "normal"). she has gone to the clinic weekly to get it checked out, and it's fluctuated rather wildly. it rose up to 3.7 three weeks ago, whereupon her dose was adjusted. it dropped the subsequent week to 2.4 (just about where she needs to be) and was told to come back in two weeks. being the vigilant and intelligent girl she is, she went back the next week (just last week) surmising that without an adjustment it is likely her INR had continued to plummet.
it had dropped to 2.0.
then, the doctor told her to come back in a month without adjusting her dosage! A MONTH! he obviously didn't review her chart, or the trend of her levels, or anything like that. anything BELOW a 2.0 and she is at risk to have another clot. jesus h. christ!
well, my vigilant and intelligent wife KNEW a month wasn't right as her levels had been steadily dropping, and who was to say it plateaued at 2.0? she went back this week to get it tested and lo and behold! it was at 1.6! well below the therapeutic level. if my wife wasn't vigilant and intelligent, she would've been walking around with an increased chance of having another thrombic episode, and we would've been through the same hell we just went through six weeks ago.
so, my question is this: what the hell are we paying this guy for, exactly?
insight? no.
concern? no.
expertise? no.
incomptence? apparently.
apathy? definitely!
i can tell you this, we will no longer be paying him a dime. we're looking for another clinic that can handle the workload; with doctors who care, understand trends, and with the time (or ethics) to do their job right.
and all of this now reminds me of a little joke:
Q. what do call a person who graduates last in his class in medical school?
A. doctor.
it appears we found ourselves such a guy.
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