skippyhawk

kelly here.

the last 24 have been full of ups and downs. yesterday they discovered that dad had some clots in the veins of one leg (not good, but not critical), and in the arteries of the other. clots in arteries are more of a problem because that means that parts of his body aren’t getting the nutrients they need to stay healthy. the doctors have decided to focus on the very large arterial clot blocking most of his leg at the hip. they put him on blood thinners to help his body deal with the rest of the clots (and prevent more from forming) in the mean time. mom apparently had some serious bouts of deja-vu yesterday as she talked to the doctors about the possibility that dad might lose some toes or his foot….yes, that foot.

it was decided to treat the main clot with drugs via a catheter at the source of the clot to limit the amount of drug spreading to the rest of his body. the choice was obvious, but a bit risky because the drug could cause the tumors to bleed out as well. they put him on a lower dose of the drug, and checked it later in the evening to make sure it was working and not causing problems. they put him in the ICU so they could keep a close eye on him.

last night, things were looking up. the big clot was dissolving, and some of the other clots were fading as well. they decided to keep it going through the night and check again this morning. there was talk of moving him out of ICU today, and possibly a trip home later in the week.

this morning, things were less good. the clot hadn’t changed since the test the night before, so they decided to stop the drugs. tomorrow (monday) he’s going to have surgery to remove the big clot. this surgery has some serious risks, which are complicated by the cancer. also, while this will fix the immediate problem, the cancer is causing the clotting, so there will still be issues. It is possible he will be able to go home eventually, providing the surgery is successful, the blood thinners do their thing, and his body cleans up the rest of the clots. but it is also possible that he might not. (wow that was hard to type)

i wish i had better news for all of you. i can’t tell you how much your support has meant to both my parents in the past few months. they are enjoying your comments on this blog as much as you are. please keep them in your thoughts and prayers and we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

much love,
kelly

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2007 at 11:53 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.