High to Low
Sep. 3rd, 2003 01:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kajelIt is funny the curves life throws at you. I went to Charlotte this weekend to visit Ned. I came home Monday night happy. All charged up, ready to get things done so that I can move in November. I felt I was at an incredible high point in my life. Tuesday morning, however, brought me back down. I discovered my sister Stacy was in the ER with a serious problem with her heart valve.
Stacy is 24 and was born with a congenital heart defect. Three years ago while we all lived in Georgia, she had her 5th major heart surgery. This time the surgeon replaced her aortic valve with a mechanical heart valve. She recovered from the surgery well and has been living a fairly normal life since.
She takes Cumadin everyday to keep her blood at a certain level. It is a whole, not to thick, not too thin thing. In the last few months apparently Stacy has been slacking on the cumadin. My mother made her go to the ER monday night for shortness of breath. This morning we have discovered for sure that she has clots in the valve.
The best way to explain it is that two hinged doors open and close to pump the blood through her heart. One of the doors is frozen in a semi-open position. This is causing stress to the heart because it isn't functioning properly and is also allowing blood to back into the heart which appears to be causing a problem with her lungs. Hence the shortness of breath as a symptom.
She will be in the hospital for several more days while they stabilize her cumadin levels back to where they should be. The doctor is hoping that will help the valve unfreeze. If it doesn't, then they will give her a drug they give to heart attack patients to try and dissolve the clots.
The danger in this is that the drug could dissolve it enough that it breaks away from the valve wall and travels into her veins. The worst case scenario for this of course is that she could then have a stroke. There is also something to do with internal bleeding and something else I can,t remember either. With all the Heparin they are pumping into her right now to thin her blood, bleeding would be bad.
If this doesn't work, then we are talking another open heart surgery to clean the valve. All because she stopped taking her medicine like she should have. One thing about this is that it is definitely going to scare her into taking her medicine correctly. Of course when she gets out of the hospital and has a clean bill of health, it won't really matter anyway. My mother is going to kill her.
After everything that we went through 3 years ago, and Stacy nearly dying then, my mother isn't taking this very well at all. Especially since it was sheer stupidity, laziness, etc. on Stacy's part that has caused this. Mom knows what Stacy is going through right now, and Stacy knows what this is doing to Mom. They have always understood each other pretty well.
This is one of those live and learn things. The scary thing is though, that this is really an if you live you learn kind of thing. And that is the source of all the stress, and fear, and anxiety right now. We just don't know how it is going to work out. We are praying for the best. Hoping that this was just a wake-up call and it will be resolved without drastic measures. That the lesson can be learned and we can move on. Lord, please. <\lj-cut>
Stacy is 24 and was born with a congenital heart defect. Three years ago while we all lived in Georgia, she had her 5th major heart surgery. This time the surgeon replaced her aortic valve with a mechanical heart valve. She recovered from the surgery well and has been living a fairly normal life since.
She takes Cumadin everyday to keep her blood at a certain level. It is a whole, not to thick, not too thin thing. In the last few months apparently Stacy has been slacking on the cumadin. My mother made her go to the ER monday night for shortness of breath. This morning we have discovered for sure that she has clots in the valve.
The best way to explain it is that two hinged doors open and close to pump the blood through her heart. One of the doors is frozen in a semi-open position. This is causing stress to the heart because it isn't functioning properly and is also allowing blood to back into the heart which appears to be causing a problem with her lungs. Hence the shortness of breath as a symptom.
She will be in the hospital for several more days while they stabilize her cumadin levels back to where they should be. The doctor is hoping that will help the valve unfreeze. If it doesn't, then they will give her a drug they give to heart attack patients to try and dissolve the clots.
The danger in this is that the drug could dissolve it enough that it breaks away from the valve wall and travels into her veins. The worst case scenario for this of course is that she could then have a stroke. There is also something to do with internal bleeding and something else I can,t remember either. With all the Heparin they are pumping into her right now to thin her blood, bleeding would be bad.
If this doesn't work, then we are talking another open heart surgery to clean the valve. All because she stopped taking her medicine like she should have. One thing about this is that it is definitely going to scare her into taking her medicine correctly. Of course when she gets out of the hospital and has a clean bill of health, it won't really matter anyway. My mother is going to kill her.
After everything that we went through 3 years ago, and Stacy nearly dying then, my mother isn't taking this very well at all. Especially since it was sheer stupidity, laziness, etc. on Stacy's part that has caused this. Mom knows what Stacy is going through right now, and Stacy knows what this is doing to Mom. They have always understood each other pretty well.
This is one of those live and learn things. The scary thing is though, that this is really an if you live you learn kind of thing. And that is the source of all the stress, and fear, and anxiety right now. We just don't know how it is going to work out. We are praying for the best. Hoping that this was just a wake-up call and it will be resolved without drastic measures. That the lesson can be learned and we can move on. Lord, please. <\lj-cut>
