Clotbusters III (without Bill Murray)

Because it’s the weekend and people may be checking the blog a bit more frequently, I’ll be updating this posting at least once more today.

Lucy had a good night. She says she slept much better. The pain pump is knocking her pain back a bit. She was running a mild temperature, which elevated her heartbeat slightly. Apparently, that is a side effect of a DVT. Her temperature came down and her heartbeat is around normal. She has been getting Tylenol to reduce her temperature. Her potassium level is back to normal. Her calf circumference has not gotten smaller yet. I don’t know how quickly that will happen.

She went to Interventional Radiology at 9:00 this morning to have the catheters moved. The last procedure took 3½ hours. I don’t know if this procedure will take as long.

UPDATE: Lucy was back in the room at 11:30, which is an hour less than her previous procedure. The reason the bottom catheter got shut off last night was a kink occurred. She may have kinked it getting situated to use the bed pan. Her right ankle is immobilized with an arm board as a precaution. To minimized potential bed pan problems she had a catheter inserted. Her bladder and kidneys are fine.

She apparently had more than one clot in her leg, one in the thigh and at least one in the calf. That is not unusual.

As we get older, our veins start constricting and lose some of their elasticity. Lucy had a minor constriction in her thigh, so they did a balloon angioplasty and an AngioJet to open things up. Her thigh is looking a lot better and the redness is turning pink.

Dr. Thurmes stopped by and seemed pleased with her progress. He did order an antibiotic for safety’s sake. Molly from Minnesota Oncology also has rounds this weekend and stopped by to see how Lucy was doing.

She will have the procedure done one more time tomorrow morning at 8:30.

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