Monday, November 22, 2010

Liberated and I'm Feeling Good!

I went into the hospital at 8:30 this morning to have angioplasty on my veins. Everything went really well. The doctor did a very thorough job of looking at all of my cerebral veins again and took lots of pressure measurements to make sure all was open and flowing as it should, which meant a lot of holding my breathe. He found that my jugular vein wasn't narrowed as they thought. He said the other doctor must have had the catheter up too high in the vein and caused the reflux that he had seen. The azygos vein was narrowed though and he did balloon that area.

At one point during the procedure I felt a lot of pressure and some pain in my chest, I mentioned it and they said they were ballooning it right then. They put a lot more catheters in and out this time, different lengths and sizes and I could feel them being more rough. That is pretty much the only place I am sore right now, just above my leg where they were inserting it.

I'm not sure if I feel any different yet. The sedation and anesthetic made me pretty tired and I have been trying to take it easy today. I think only time will tell. My mom made the analogy of unwatered, brown grass. Even after you have watered it, it still takes a week or two to green up again. I do feel a little clearer, not in eyesight but in awareness, if that makes sense, but I haven't tried to do much and it has only been 7 hours.

I am on blood thinners for a month. I have to inject myself with Lovenox twice a day for a week and then take Plavix for a month. The doctor checked and said both are ok for breastfeeding.
They are expensive meds, over $1,000 just for Lovenox, but my insurance paid for all but $250. I've never injected myself before, I hope I can do it tonight.

1 comment:

Alaura Shefchik said...

I'm happy it worked out! Keep us updated. I love you.