Skip to main content

Back in the hospital deja vu

I am back at Mt. Nittany hospital. :( On Monday my heart rate was over 100 at rest so I went to the ER to get checked out. They thought it might be dehydration, pumped me with fluids, and sent me home. However, on Monday and Tuesday I also needed more oxygen while I was walking and took my last dose of Prednisone on Saturday, which I thought could be a factor. I called my oncologist yesterday to see what I should do, and she wanted me to get a CT scan within the next few days. The quickest way to do this is to go the ER. Otherwise it could have been days or weeks to get insurance authorization, schedule it, etc. 

The CT scan shows less lung inflammation, which is good. But it also shows that the clot on my right lung has gotten slightly larger, whereas the clots on the left are gone or nearly gone. So the doctor ordered an ultrasound to check for clots in my legs. Sure enough, the clot on my right leg is not going away (it seems to have migrated from my calf to behind my knee). The clot on my left leg has dissolved. So something weird is going on with the right side of my body and the blood thinners I'm taking (Eliquis--and recall that the previous one, Lovenox, didn't prevent a new clot from forming). So after seeing the ultrasound results, the doctor said I should spend the night and they will have to come up with a new anti-coagulation medication plan for me. 

It took 2.5 hours to get a hospital room, so by the time the nurse left it was 12:20am. I didn't get much sleep. Also, why do nurses decide that certain things must be done at a certain time--like the CNA who came in at 5am to say they hadn't gotten my weight and had me get out of bed to stand on the scale. 

I'm also back to needing oxygen when I'm just sitting here. :( Until yesterday I was off of oxygen while at rest. I had made so much progress and now it seems like I'm back to where I was a month ago in terms of oxygen needs.

It's hard not to feel discouraged. I was not expecting to be admitted to the hospital. I thought I would get my CT scan and go home. It feels like one setback after another with the bleeping blood clots.  

Visitors are welcome from 11-8. During my previous visit the nurses were generous about getting drinks and ice cream cups or popsicles for me and guests.

views from my room


A highlight of the week, before my hospital admission, was a visit from my college friend Jen, who drove up from her parents' house in New Jersey. We had a great dinner at the Tavern, bought 3 half-gallons of Creamery ice cream, had a video chat from the ER with another of our college roommates (Ami), and wandered around the Arboretum. 




Comments

  1. LaraSeptember 21, 2022 at 8:42 AM

    This is not the turn of events you wanted! I'm so sorry- this sucks. Hopefully a new anti-coagulation plan will help you get things figured out and back out hiking around town. Hang in there.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2022 at 10:22 AM

    Oh I'm so sorry, Esther. This has to be super frustrating and discouraging. Hope they continue to treat you well and you get out of there soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esther PrinsSeptember 21, 2022 at 3:00 PM

      Yes, the nurses and doctors have been great. It's the same hospitalist as the last time I was here.

      Delete
  3. LauraSeptember 21, 2022 at 11:31 AM

    Esther, you did not need this. I am so very sorry to hear this; thank you for keeping us updated.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esther PrinsSeptember 21, 2022 at 3:01 PM

      No, I didn't need it. Although when I look at it objectively, it's fortuitous that they discovered the larger clots before they became an even bigger problem.

      Delete
  4. Kai Annyce & EmmetSeptember 21, 2022 at 4:20 PM

    Oh Esther, I'm so sorry to hear this news. I know you cherish those visits with friends.

    ReplyDelete
  5. BrendaSeptember 21, 2022 at 4:59 PM

    does the hospital have an adjoining Arboretum?! ...or were you walking somewhere else? Either way, kuddos for horticulture therapy! (p.s. hospitals historically were designed with a healing garden as part and parcel of recovery/treatment... until they built towers :))

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esther PrinsSeptember 22, 2022 at 8:07 AM

      Jen and I visited the arboretum on Monday, before I was admitted. It's part of the PSU campus, about a mile from the hospital. The hospital does have a healing garden, though (more hardscaping than landscaping).

      Delete
  6. KaiSeptember 22, 2022 at 7:36 AM

    Well this is discouraging indeed. Esther, I’ll try to drop by later today. The PSU library has that Belorus book for me — thanks again for the recommendation! I’m thinking of you, and lily and Leland. Hope to see you soon. - kai

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Esther PrinsSeptember 22, 2022 at 8:08 AM

      Thank you, Kai. I'm glad you got ahold of the book!

      Delete
  7. Esther PrinsSeptember 22, 2022 at 8:08 AM

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cancer- and Tagrisso-versaries

June 14 marked three years since my Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis and on June 30, I will complete three years on Tagrisso targeted therapy.  with my first Tagrisso pills (a sample from my oncologist), June 30, 2022 Every year as June approaches, I feel like I am reliving my own Stations of the Cross, recalling what happened each day as I walk toward the inevitable, gut-wrenching diagnosis: my GP telling me the x-ray showed “infiltration” and recommending a CT scan, getting the CT scan and the radiologist (and Leland) thinking I had TB, being sent to the LungenClinic, the doctor ruling out TB and telling me cancer was one of 3 possible explanations for my symptoms, but that it was "unlikely" because of my age, and so on. Not long ago, a Stage IV lung cancer diagnosis was a sure, quick death sentence. A researcher who wrote an article  commemorating the 20 th anniversary of the discovery the EGFR (epithelial growth factor receptor) mutation driving my cancer recalled that i...
15 comments
Read more

regular update

I had my regular oncology appointment in Pittsburgh yesterday. Dr. Villaruz said the scans look good and everything is stable. Although I don’t have much scanxiety nowadays, it’s always a relief to get good news. Just to be sure that my understanding was correct, I asked her why I’m not a candidate for surgery. It’s because of the cancer’s growth pattern. The one nodule that’s visible on the CT scan could just be scarring; she’s not sure if it’s a tumor. When I was diagnosed, I was told the lung cancer was “lepidic.” This means that the tumor cells were growing along the lining of the alveolar structures (air sacs).* That’s why my lungs looked like they were draped in cobwebs. You can’t do surgery in enough places to get all of it. Thankfully, Tagrisso swept out those cobwebs – and continues to do so. We go back in December for a regular appointment. *Lepidic spread tends to be slow-growing, with minimal invasion of nearby tissues, less chance of metastasis, and overall better progno...
10 comments
Read more

Who needs their knees, anyway?

I hadn’t written a blog post about my knee injury because I wasn’t sure whether it was related to cancer, but now I know how they are connected. The short version is that my knee swelled up so badly that I couldn’t walk on the night of May 6th/morning of May 7 th.  Because I am on blood thinners, the knee joint kept filling up with blood, a condition that I learned is called hemarthrosis. I’ve spent the past 4+ weeks meeting with a bazillion doctors (GP, orthopedic doctor, orthopedic oncologist, orthopedic surgeon, hematologist), going to the ER (twice), having my knee drained (3 times), and mostly lying on the sofa for 2 of those weeks, trying to get the swelling to come down. I still have a bit of swelling, but I’ve been able to walk 10-20+ minutes the past week without making it worse. I’m still wearing a compression sleeve, which is a step up from the brace and crutches I was using before. Now for the longer version. There was no particular event that caused the injury. The d...
4 comments
Read more