Well, some of you may be wondering why the long hiatus in posting, and others may have heard, but the good new is that last night they let me out of the hospital.
What the hell happened? Okay, here’s the chronology. Saturday, July 21: I ride from Pearl River to the Cafe du Monde. Sunday, July 22: Gerry and I drive (about 3 hours) to Josephine, Alabama, where my nephew has his beach house. Monday, I get up, have a cup of coffee (rare for me) and a sweet roll, and go to work on building the addition to the deck. When we went out for lumber at one time, I had some abdominal pain, but I thought it was gas or stomach upset from unaccustomed caffeine. The next day I also had a short spell of “gas pain”, which I also dismissed. Then Gerry and I drove back to
Pearl River, and Wednesday we went for a ride on the St. Tammany Trace. I don’t remember any pain that day. Robin came down that night. Thursday we sort of hung out, I think I had a little pain in the morning, then Friday we left for Cape and again I thought I’d eaten too much or something (yeah, I’m slow on the uptake). Saturday morning I went for a ride, drove to town, started feeling some pain around noon, went home. By 3 PM the pain was still getting worse, and we went to the emergency room.
At the emergency room a nurse saw me, took my BP and temp, took a little medical history, and then sent me into the waiting room. An hour later the pain level was up even more. How much? Well, I’ve had some experience using a pain scale from 1-10 over the last few days, something like this:
At 4 PM it was somewhere around a 6, i.e. “dreadful”. Robin went back and tried to get me moved up in the triage queue. The nurse saw me again, took my BP and temp, said, “It hurts worse now?”, and sent me back. At 5 PM I was curled up in a ball on the floor of the waiting room. I think this was probably around a 9, although I may be a wimp. Usually not, though. I’d have to describe it as someone, having recently stabbed me in the lower left abdomen, now wiggling the knife blade around. Robin got up to try to persuade them to get me some pain meds. They couldn’t do anything yet. Finally I got up and sort of staggered over to the desk, where I explained to them as loudly as I could that I was in FUCKING pain and could they please DO SOMETHING. About then it was actually my turn, and a nurse was coming up with a wheelchair. She started berating Robin: “Creating a scene in the waiting room isn’t going to get you treated any faster.” Robin didn’t take well to this, words were exchanged, and next thing you know the nurse was ordering Robin to get out of the treatment room. At this point Robin leapt up and ripped her throat out with one swipe of her fangs. I got some pain meds, and pretty soon Robin and I were in a hospital room. And, by the way, I received nothing but highly competent, prompt, and friendly care the rest of the time. It was just the emergency room people that would have let me die on the floor.
So, what happened? I guess the best test to answer that was the CT angiogram of the kidneys that I had yesterday. The main renal artery to each kidney is wide open, but some of the next level arterial branches are partially blocked with blood clots. This is particularly severe on the left side, where the pain was appearing.
Why did this happen? Yeah, anyone who knows should send the answer to my general practitioner, cardiologist, nephrologist, urologist, vascular surgeon, and hematologist. I’ve had the proverbial cubic buttload of tests done over the past few days, and nobody really knows. Cabell once had a deep-vein clot in her calf, and it turns out she has a genetic clotting anomaly called Factor V Leiden that makes you somewhat more prone to clots. We had the other two girls tested: Sophie has it but Hannah doesn’t. Needless to say, we’re waiting for my test results now. However, usually this causes clots in veins, not arteries, and nobody could say why the kidneys alone would be affected. And believe me, after both a transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiogram, another CAT scan, and a brain MRI, we’re pretty sure nothing else has any clots, my heart is fine, and so on. So, I have appointments with scads of doctors, and maybe we’ll find out more later. Or not.
Does this have something to do with MO2NO? Well, it’s awfully tempting to make a connection. 52-year-old man rides 730 miles in 9 days, then gets blood clots in his kidneys. Clearly the blood clots were caused by the bike ride. Okay, I’ve heard of the post hoc fallacy too, but you have to wonder. The problem, as several doctors said, is that there just isn’t much known. Not many people do biking to that extent, and so there aren’t enough clinical studies to draw conclusions.
Meanwhile, for the immediate future, I asked my GP Kent Griffith about my recommended exercise level, and he used the term “couch potato.” Which is fine at the moment, as I’m still in some pain. It’s kind of like you’d have if, 5 days ago or so, somebody stabbed you in the abdomen and wiggled the knife around a while — now it’s sore. Kent gave me 650 mg Vicodin for it. Last night when I got home around 9 I took one, and by 11:30 I was lying on my bed feeling like an astronaut during takeoff — the acceleration had me pinned down. I forgot that I hadn’t eaten anything since about 3 PM before that, so I had a half a sandwich, and eventually got to sleep.
Anyway, I apologize for long, detailed discussion of my medical condition. That’s what old people talk about, isn’t it? Hoping to be up and around soon. Oh, and I really am going to do some picture posts for MO2NO, now that I have computer access again.
Oh my goodness! I was starting to wonder when you hadn’t posted in awhile…but never imagined something like this!
I hope you recover and are able to find some answers!
I’m so glad you’re feeling (a bit) better. I’m sorry you had such a horrible experience in the ER. There was a big scandal in LA a little while ago about a hospital who’s ER staff let a woman writhe around on the floor bleeding for many, many hours until she died. The same hospital let a man with a brain tumor wait for several days until his family finally took him somewhere else. Luckily, I think the State has succeeded in shutting the place down. I guess I’m trying to say, uh, it could’ve been worse…?
Any way, we’re sending you love from CA!!! And I’m proud of your trip even if it did cause the clots. Love you, Jade
Yeah, I guess it’s like when everyone was very insistent that because being overweight is a risk factor for clots, having lost a lot of weight rapidly could NEVER contribute to an elevated risk of clot, despite the fact that obviously they don’t have any clinical data to back that up because if they did, they’d be getting rich making people lose a lot weight rapidly. On the other hand, I guess I don’t understand why the clotting factor would be particularly more likely to cause vein clots rather than artery clots, unless the latter are less common anyway. And ultimately, what can they do except give you anticoagulants and tell you to come in sooner next time?
Speaking of which, from now on when I have to go to the ER I am just going to tell them I have chest pains. That’s what gets you moved up in the queue.
Glad to hear that you’re home and feeling better.
I believe what Robin did at the hospital is called “going all Terms of Endearment on the nurse’s ass.”
I am terribly sorry to hear about your illness. Thankfully, Robin was with you.
Recently, my Uncle died after a trip to the wrong emergency room. Staff there failed to diagnose a massive stroke. By the time he got to a better facility it was too late.
It’s frightening when this happens. I am glad that you are feeling better.
Stacey — I’m sorry to hear about your uncle. At least I was at a very good hospital, just one with some issues in the E.R. triage. I have to say I thought a lot during the last few days about what would have happened to someone without medical insurance in this situation. I’m betting that the half dozen specialists don’t come cheap.
I did not rip her throat out. I was a bit testy, yes. And maybe I did threaten her just a little bit. But, as you know, I bite my claws and, as a result, they are unlikely to inflict much damage.
That all sounds horrible and frightening. Glad to hear that they’ve found what was causing the pain, and I hope the rest of the pain goes away soon. I don’t like the sound of those Vicodin things.
I will take care never to distress or mess with Robin in any way. Sounds dangerous.
BTW, I see on re-reading that passage about Robin that I inadvertently omitted a word. It should read “one swipe of her *glistening* fangs.”
Can Robin be hired out when I need to go to the emergency room? I know that pain, usually with me it is regarding kidney stones. Go be a couch potato and rest. It is too hot to do anything else.