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Friday at last

Hopefully 2 more hours and im free. Friend of mine who moved away is coming back today. Going to hit a couple dock bars up.

Update, Jig?

Jason wrote: ↑Fri Apr 15, 2022 12:33 pmUpdate, Jig?

So here's a darkly humorous story.

Earlier today, I got a call from the hospital. It was a nurse letting me know that my mother's blood pressure was dropping, that she had fallen unconscious and unresponsive, and that it might be best to get over there if we (myself and my brother) wanted to be with her.

I do not have a car. My brother does not have a car. And Columbia City is not a five minute walk from Fort Wayne (where she is hospitalized). So I call a few people for a ride, one of them is able to help out, and naturally, I'm not doing too well.

About halfway there, I get another call. Another nurse saying that, "Hey, that call earlier was to the wrong person. Your mother's doing fine."

It was nice to hear, but obviously since we were already on the way, I wanted to see her.

The basic problem remains - she can't have blood thinners because of a pre-existing bleed, so if she does have another stroke, it will likely be fatal.

That said, she is being moved to a rehab facility tonight. She is in good spirits (which is not uncommon for my mother), and it was certainly nice to speak with her, especially given the circumstances that brought my brother and I out.

She's likely still living on borrowed time, but I don't think it's quite as bad as I did a day or so ago. I'm hoping she can get through rehab and regain any lost fine motor skills, and she seems to believe she can to. Now, I didn't speak to any doctors (it was a doctor who called me on Thursday and said "prepare for the worst), but she's not exactly in ICU or anything. If she's being moved to rehab, I think that's a step in the right direction.

Maybe this story will brighten the mood a little.. I was in somewhat of a similar situation with my esophagus issue, which you might remember. I'll recap everything as quick as I can, but it will be a long post.

In December 2013 I got randomly hit with a blood clot in my leg. I was 25 at the time and that shit shouldn't just happen to a young fit guy like me without some sort of cause. In January 2014, Obamacare kicked in and it screwed me pretty bad. I was forced to switch doctors and I went from doctors who were really on top of it for the two weeks that I had them, to doctors who were fairly incompetent or just didn't give a shit really. They kept mentioning leukemia is possible, had to get blood work done constantly, bone marrow biopsy, CT scans, and I kept coming up clean. I couldn't work for years because they could not grasp the issue and figuring out what was wrong with me was way more important than finding a job at that time. Somehow I was able to schedule an appointment with the original doctors I had and unbeknownst to me because of the Healthcare switch, they figured out I had Factor V Leiden through a genetic mutation they took from my blood. Which is a blood clotting condition, basically meaning my blood tends to form clots easier than your average person and it's actually unbelievably common. I was just one of the rare ones to develop a clot. So in less than two weeks, the good doctors figured out the cause, but because of the switch, I got stuck with nimrod doctors who didn't think to do a genetic mutation for a condition that is pretty common.

So now that we got that figured out, they also found that my spleen was apparently slightly enlarged. I wanted a second opinion and got another scan and they said it was twice the size it should be and they wanted to remove it and check for lymphoma. I allowed them to remove it and in 2016, they took out my spleen and that was that. No lymphoma or issue of any kind detected in my spleen, of fucking course.

Fast forward to 2018, over the span of those 5 years, I was constantly on oral blood thinners for life to prevent me from getting clots, but I kept getting fucking clots and switching to different blood thinners. My theory is that the oral blood thinners were causing me to develop more clots, because there have been issues with them that the doctors never told me about.

So 2018, I wake up in the middle of the night before work and feel like my stomach is on fire. I roll around a bit in bed and realize I'm gonna puke. I run into the bathroom and puke an unbelievable amount of blood. My parents drove me to the ER and I brought with me an empty In N Out cup that I repeatedly kept puking in before finally being called in. I puked buckets of blood and was feeling like I was going to pass out before they finally gave me a plasma and restored some of my blood. Turns out, because of the oral blood thinners,, my blood was 4x thinner than it should have been and it was the reason why I bled such a massive amount. Later that day they transfer me to another hospital to perform an endoscopy where they go into my throat and put bands around my esophagus to stop the bleeding. On the way, I pulled the number of the hot EMT chick that transferred me to the hospital. Long story short, she liked me, but was a lesbian and was open to going back to men but that was a little too wild for me. Cool chick, though. Anyway, the endoscopy worked, I wake up, I feel fine, a doctor comes in and says if I bleed again there's nothing they can do. So my parents are freaked, I'm trying to keep a brave face for them while coming to terms with the fact that I could die at any second. The part that fucked me up was I felt just fine, as if nothing had happened. I probably have PTSD from that, and I developed panic attacks for a while after returning home from the hospital. So while I'm in the hospital preparing to die, other doctors and nurses are checking on me and acting like everything is normal and kind of talking about the future and I remember asking one of the doctors that was present for my endoscopy what my chances were, and she gave me a weird look and said I'll be fine and out of here in a few days. This also fucked with me, because one doctor tells me I might not make it, the other acts as if I'll be totally fine. Total mindfuck. I'm not sure if she's just trying to ease my worries before I die or what the fuck. But obviously I got out of there.

They wanted to do tests on my liver because that is the main cause for esophageal bleeds, and my liver checked out normal. CT scan, however, revealed a blood clot in my portal vein (near the liver), which caused restricted blood flow and forced it all to my esophagus which caused the burst. I'm back with good doctors again thanks to another Healthcare switch. My blood specialist (hematologist) said he was gonna put me on lovenox injections for life instead of blood thinners because injections are far more trustworthy. I wish they would have done that in the first place. I have to inject a needle in my stomach twice a day for life, but I don't mind it.

Here's the thing though, people with my blood condition typically develop clots in their leg, and it will occasionally travel to the lungs like mine did a couple of times. A portal vein clot is weird, even for my condition, and after hours of research, I stumbled upon information pertaining to splenectomy side effects. A removal of the spleen can cause a blood clot in the portal vein. I was never once made aware of this by any of the doctors who wanted to rip the spleen out. My next hematologist appointment, I bring up the splenectomy side effect and he goes wide eyed like I just solved the riddle of the sphinx. He's a caring doctor, but at the end of the day, doctors really only know so much and the vast majority of the shit I've dealt with and had to overcome, I overcame with the help of doctors, but also largely my own research.









TL;DR version: I was once told by the doctors there is nothing more they can do. They did nothing more, and I made it out of there. Even if these are the final days or weeks, there's no reason not to have faith that she will tough it out and make it through, and on the bright side of this, from what you tell me, she is alert and in good spirits. Take advantage of that. Whether or not these are the final days, enjoy being with your mom while she's awake and alert and enjoy the time you spend together while she's in the hospital. Learn to knit or whatever it is your mom likes to do and do it with her.

Strokes suck. My grandpa only went on for a few years after his. I'm sorry Jigster.

Yeah, sorry Jiggy.

I dont want to give false hope but lots of people live past strokes its not rare. I am not religious but I'm praying for jiggys mom

Dang, guys. That's alot. Hope it gets better.