Skip to main content

Third time's a charm?

I was elated to learn from the day nurse that my blood test results (peak anti-factor Xa level) are right in the middle of the target range. So that means I can go home today and continue taking Lovenox! Since this is my third hospital discharge, I'm preparing myself for the process to take hours. If I get out before lunch, I'll be pleasantly surprised. There's a noon home game tomorrow, so getting out before the crazy Friday traffic starts would be nice. 

For those who don't live here, State College becomes the third largest city in PA on football weekends. The hospital is along one of the main roads that becomes very congested. This is why, when Lily was a week overdue and my water had broken, we waited until the third quarter of the Indiana game (i.e., no traffic) to drive to the hospital. 


Thanks so much to friends who visited yesterday and brought or sent flowers, socks, treats, and trashy magazines. I have to confess I didn't even know Harry and Olivia were a couple; how is she coping with the breakup and drama about her movie???


I am REALLY hoping to stay out of the hospital this time. I hope the Lovenox will get the clotting under control so that I can get my stamina back and not feel short of breath whenever I'm doing something more strenuous than sitting. 

Comments

  1. Home is good ! Yes ! Hopefully you can be released before the traffic starts. It’s summer and very warm here in Texas. 😂😂😂98 high today. The lord is covering you with heal :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG I'm laughing at the tabloid headlines!!! Have fun. So happy to hear you're heading home.❤️

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you ever think your life is hard, just read about celebrities...

      Delete
  3. Poor Harry Styles! So glad you’re headed home Esther — great news!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. So happy to hear this, Esther! Hope you miss that traffic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, same here. We can always go around the long way to avoid Park Ave.

      Delete

  5. Welcome Home Esther. I was worried about you.

    Love ,

    Dad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Dad. I'm back home now and doing well. I got to see about 4 golden eagles from my hospital window before leaving. The nurse pointed them out to me. They were hunting on the freshly mown fields.

      Delete
  6. here's hoping discharge goes swiftly for you, and some magical fairy spreads some pixy dust so you can fly out of there & home without traffic! Praying ALL the clots reduce in size. (p.s. I share your dad's sentiments <3)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Praying that this one takes smoothly! Glad for the other good news in the last posts--and to see in the comments you made it home before noon, even. Hope you're getting a chance to enjoy this weekend's lovely fall weather without too much gameday disruption. The house we rented at Notre Dame was ~10 minutes brisk walk to the library but that meant we were also 10-15 minutes walk from the stadium and...I don't miss that. At least the hospital was in the other direction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thankfully we had no problems with traffic, etc. The joys and tribulations of living in a university/football town! Thanks so much for your lovely card.

      Delete
  8. Dear Esther, I am so glad to hear the good news from your post! With the advanced medicine and technology, and the love from the family and friends, you will be fine and you will live for at least 50 years, and much more! 😊

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anti-factor Xa level is the name of my next punk band. Prayers and positive vibes to you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Healthcare costs and insurance woes and victories

Those of you who have read this blog from the beginning may recall my posts about how inexpensive healthcare is in Germany compared to the US. I now have additional proof. I've been receiving "explanation of benefits" statements from Aetna detailing the cost of my hospital stays and other healthcare services since the end of July. Close your eyes and guess how much these amount to. Higher. No, higher. Still higher. Well over $200,000. Of that, I have paid maybe $100 plus some $20-30 co-pays for doctor's visits. Add to that my cancer and blood thinner medications, which would cost about $16,000 per month without insurance. I have no idea what people in my situation do if they are uninsured or under-insured. My recent interaction with one of my German doctors illustrates another stark difference. Before leaving Germany, I had asked my doctor what to do if I received bills from the LungenClinic after we had moved and closed our Deutsche Bank account (all bills in Germany...

Indolent nodules

We met with my oncologist (Dr. Villaruz) and radiation oncologist (Dr. McCall) at UPMC in Pittsburgh yesterday en route from visiting family in Grand Rapids, MI. The main nodule we were watching grew by another millimeter or so. Dr. Villaruz described it as “indolent.” I asked what that meant and as she started to say “growing very slowly,” I recognized the word and blurted out “lazy!” I remarked I’d never heard indolent used in a medical context, and Dr. Villaruz said she’d never heard of it outside of medicine. So we both learned something. She and Dr. McCall said that there is no urgency, but that within the next 9-12 months, they would want to radiate the more clearly defined nodule and another one close to it. A third one looks like “ground glass,” a term for something that is hazy and not quite solid, but you can’t radiate something that is ill-defined and can’t be clearly imaged. It will be much easier to do radiation in the summer than during a busy semester or the winter b...

Four years

Sunday, June 14 marked 4 years since I was diagnosed with lung cancer while living in Hamburg. Those of you who have followed my journey from the start know that my family and I went to hell and back several times during those first six months. Here I am before, during, and after. The photo below was the last taken before my life unraveled. I went on a photography outing with the American Women's Club of Hamburg. When my doctor said my x-ray showed "infiltration" and I should get a CT scan, I put it off for a day so I wouldn't miss this event. That's how unconcerned I was. The possibility of cancer never crossed my mind, despite my severe shortness of breath. This was my hospital room at the LungenClinic, where I learned my shocking diagnosis. I was sitting at the little table with the doctors and Leland was on Zoom. Leland had to travel to the hospital by train (an hour-plus trip) before we could process the news together, shellshocked. This photo shows me in the...