swim mom
Well-known member
There are a lot of strange/ interesting medical things in my life, I just wish they didn't happen to me! Let me state at the beginning of this I wasn't on coumadin prior to this issue. My Doctor and I thought my knee problem was related to my meniscus. Nope, it couldn't be that easy. After several weeks and many tests it was found to be an aneurysm in my popliteal vein behind my knee. Yes, it was the vein, and yes it is highly unusual. By ultra sound it measured about 3cm x 3cm x 2 cm and the combination of the risk of bloodclots and the pain it was causing forced me to have surgery. Afterward my surgeon said it was more like the size of three large walnuts. My first question is how in the heck did that fit in there! When you looked at my knees there was very little difference. Everything was fine for that day and the following day. On the third day my oxygen saturation kept decreasing. I don't usually have enough of a problem to be on oxygen and a deep breath usually brings it up if it happens to drop. All day I told my nurse I had stomach pain and was uncomfortable. All they did was turn up my oxygen saying you have heart problems and you need to walk. Each time I tried to walk I would almost pass out by the time I got to the door. Over and over I said something is wrong, my oxygen is never this low. Until the early evening when my family came the nurse just stopped answering the call button. Oh, and none of my doctors were ever called or would be called. We should have been more forceful then but hindsight is wonderful! Before leaving my husband and daughters tried taking me for a walk and again I almost passed out at the door. I sat down, felt better for a few minutes and then either passed out or had a seizure . My daughters ran to get help, quickly my room is full of rapid response team nurses. They think they have me stabilized, I don't remember what they thought was wrong but they didn't think about a bleed. Several hours later something happens that causes another rapid response during which I remember only two things. I remember asking them to call my husband and I remember a young nurse saying "does she have any rhythm other than bigeminy ?" after looking at my ekg. I made a short stop in the progressive care unit after a horrible CT scan before quickly ending up in ICU for almost a week. The diagnosis, a large bleed both inside my intestines and out in my abdomen. Why did it happen? Bad luck, I was on lovenox until my inr was in the range they wanted which is actually very low and I wasn't over anticoagulated . Luckily while it was a fairly large bleed it appeared to stop during the night. With lots of blood and other issues I made it across the tightrope once again.
The reason I tell this story isn't to scare people who are new to coumadin. It is to remind all of us how important it is to be our own advocate or to have someone who can help advocate for us. Also, to be aware of our own bodies so we know when something is wrong and being confident enough or having someone else confident enough to tell a doctor/nurse something is wrong and not back down. I thought I was confident enough but this time when push came to shove I backed down. I always tell my family if something bad happens to you but it helps someone
The reason I tell this story isn't to scare people who are new to coumadin. It is to remind all of us how important it is to be our own advocate or to have someone who can help advocate for us. Also, to be aware of our own bodies so we know when something is wrong and being confident enough or having someone else confident enough to tell a doctor/nurse something is wrong and not back down. I thought I was confident enough but this time when push came to shove I backed down. I always tell my family if something bad happens to you but it helps someone
