Foot Surgery Update

Today I found out that I don't have to take blood thinner anymore. I have been on it for 6 months. People that have foot surgeries should have a very low percent (1% or less) of getting a blood clot. This being said, they don't really know if it was the surgery that caused me to get a blood clot. Because of that I will be taking an aspirin a day to help prevent me ever having a blood clot again. I feel so blessed that Coumadin was around to be able to help me and save my live, but I also feel very blessed that I can stop taking the stuff. This is truly something to be thankful for!

As for my foot. I haven't been released from the doctor yet. I am hoping that my next appointment in December will be the last one.

Good-Bye Old Friend

Yesterday I took back the scooter that I have been renting since I had my foot surgery 5 1/2 weeks ago. All weekend long I kept going back and forth whether or not I should rent it for another week. When Monday morning came I knew that my time was up on it, but it was still sad. I have had it with me every day and it has helped me get around. So the sad part about giving up my little "scoot-scoot" is that now it is just me and my boot. The kids were bummed that I was getting rid of their favorite play toy. The good part of not having the scooter around anymore means that I am actually healing. YIPPEE! I am walking around a lot better than I was even a week ago. I am able to go up and down the stairs now and am able to putter around the house and get a few things done. It is a great feeling to start functioning like a mom again!

What I Didn't Know About

I know that there were things that happened and I didn't know about when was laid up in bed. Here are a couple that I ended up finding out about as I was downloading pictures from the camera. (To all my friends who dare send their kids to come and play again: All toys will be disinfected before your kids come to play!)

So what you need to know about these pictures is that Jared is in the house cleaning out the 150 gallon fish aquarium. Hmmmm....who is watching the boys outside? The other thing that needs to be mentioned is that I think that the water coming out of the hose is from the aquarium. I don't know if I even want to find out for sure. Looks like I have some work ahead of me to sanitize ALL of their toys!

First Coumadin Clinic Visit

I went to the Coumadin clinic for the first time yesterday (May 21st). Because of my blood clot I will now be taking a blood thinner called Coumadin for about the next 6 months. I have to go into this clinic and have my blood tested frequently so that they can get my INR (International Normalized Ratio) levels stabilized. My blood levels should be between a 2 and a 3. I am happy to report that I am at 2.1 as of yesterday. Many different factors can change where my levels are: the foods I eat, medicines and vitamins I take. I am supposed to be really monitoring how much Vitamin K I get because it can counteract the blood thinner. Vitamin K is in all green vegetables. It has taken a little bit of getting used to, but it is getting a little bit easier to remember some of these things that I can and can't have. I found out yesterday that there are 3 things that I for sure can not have (grapefruit, liver, and green tea) all the other stuff I can have, but just in moderation and I have to stay consistent every single week. If I have broccoli for dinner tonight I would need to have about the same amount next week. I didn't know that there was so much to it when a person is on blood thinners. Now that I am home from the hospital I am supposed to start getting back into my regular eating routine and taking vitamins again. This will all change my INR levels so that when I go back on Tuesday to the clinic they can adjust my dosage accordingly. They don't want my levels to get too much over a 3 because that would make my blood too thin and then I could risk having a hemorrhage. On the flip side, they don't want my levels to get below a 2 because my blood would start to get too thick and I could be at risk to have a stroke. WOW! That is going to take a lot of fine-tuning to get my levels so that they don't change.

I know that I have said it before, but I am sooooo grateful for the doctors that I saw both at the Urgent Care and the Emergency Room. The more I am learning about blood clots I am finding that they are really hard to identify in less you see the red splotch on the leg (which I didn't have). A lot of times when someone has a blood clot in their lungs they are told that they must just must be having some anxiety problems. They are then put on some other medicine for anxiety and of course, that doesn't work. Thank you, thank you, thank you for identifying the problem correctly. There are 4 little people running around the house right now that I am so grateful that I will get to watch grow up.

Hospital BLING!

I had a little tumble at the hospital the day before I got to leave. After that happened a nurse came in the room and brought the newest addition for my arm. It was a bright yellow bracelet that says FALL RISK. My family thought that this was a hoot and wanted me to keep it on until I can start walking again. Sorry guys, I took it off early. I think that the bright pink bandage on my foot also says, FALL RISK.

I went to the foot surgeon yesterday to see if my little fall damaged my foot or just hurt the pride. After an x-ray and an exam I found that my little tumble just hurt the pride. That was a relief to me. One more week and the stitches should be able to come out and hopefully I will get to start the next part of the healing process.

Home Sweet Home

I'm Home! I got quite the welcome home from the kids. The boys kept running around screaming "SURPRISE!!!" It is so good to be home and in my own surroundings. More updates will happen later.

Detour in the Healing Process

So here is the latest news of my foot surgery. I went to the doctor for my post-op appointment on Wednesday, May 13th. The Dr. changed the bandage and said that everything was looking good. That night I woke up in the middle of the night with shortness of breath, feeling lightheaded, dizzy and sweaty. I stayed up for hours not knowing what it was but too worked up to go back to bed. The next morning I didn’t think too much about it until I had another episode. I happened to have the next one when Aline, my mother-in-law, was in the room with me. I told her that she needed to stop moving around while she was talking to me, because it was making me sick. She said that she wasn’t moving and the next thing she knew I got really pale and started having a hard time breathing. After this episode cleared up I told her that I had the same thing happen the night before. We were starting to think that maybe I was having an allergic reaction to all the pills that I was on. We talked about it and we decided that if I had one more episode that I would need to call the doctor. Well, that day about 4:30 I all of a sudden got the feeling that I needed to call the doctor. The doctor’s office told me to call the pharmacy to see if there was any drug interactions, if there wasn’t I might have a little bit of pneumonia setting in. They suggested that I call my primary care doctor the next morning and get in an appointment so that they could take care of it. Again, I don’t know why, but when Jared got home from work that night I had a strong feeling that I needed to go to Urgent Care. I didn’t want to have another night like the previous one (it’s hard to get a good sleep when you aren’t feeling very well). All I had to do was go downstairs so that we could go. I had scooted down about ½ of the stairs when another attack began.
We got to the urgent care and the doctor didn’t even take 5 minutes to say that I didn’t have pneumonia, but that he thought that I may have a blood clot that might be up the lungs. So Jared and I headed across the street to the emergency room. They verified through a CT scan (CAT) that I did have a blood clot in my lungs. Hours later that got me admitted into the hospital. I then was given an ultrasound on my legs to make sure that no other blood clots were lurking around . I was also given an Echo cardiogram for my heart. They wanted to make sure that the little stress that my lungs had gone through hadn’t affected my heart as well. Thank goodness there were no more clots in the legs and my heart seemed to be in good condition.
The only thing to do now was to get me on some blood thinning medicine so that I can start to take care of my not so small problem. I take a Coumadin pill once a day and take a shot called Lovenox 2 times a day. I guess that I am ultra-sensitive to the Coumadin because my blood levels started increasing way too fast. They have been readjusting my dosages and trying to get my blood count level so that it will be safe when I get home.
I guess in my naietitviy I thought that once I started on the blood thinners that the blood clot would go away. Well, one thing that I found out last night was that a blood clot can stay in the system for up to 6 months. Because of this, the same symptoms that I had before I went to the hospital can come and go. Basically it is just the little blood clot saying, “hello, I am still here”. I didn’t know this before, but I got woken up in the middle of the night last night with those same feelings and started to panic a little bit. I am so glad that this happened while I was in the hospital so that I knew what it was. Had it happened at home, I would have asked to be taken right back to the emergency room.
Yes, this hasn’t been the easiest foot surgery recovery, but I am so grateful that I had such competent doctors both at the urgent care and at the emergency room that treated my symptoms seriously and found out what the problem was. I have had A LOT of time to sit and reflect on things and I feel like I have been given a new lease on life. I can’t wait to get home so that I can be a better person, mother wife, and daughter. You never know what life is going to throw at you. I know that I definitely wasn’t prepared for this to happen to me, especially the idea that my mortality really isn’t up to me. Hug your spouse and kids and tell your friends how much you care for them, because if I have learned one thing over this last week, it is that we just don’t realize how fragile life is.
Thank you (you know who you are) to everyone that has been helping my family and taken the boys for a couple hours so that my mother-in-law could get a little break.
I am hoping for a good report tomorrow so that I can go home! Keep your fingers crossed!

Jared & JoAnn Kelm at Banner Gateway Hospital

Jocelyn, Jessica dnd JoAnn at hospital.

Jacob & Jayden reading books to mom at the hospital.

Jayden is investigating all wires and tubes that I have sticking out of me.

Oh boy! Did I say that the 2 year olds driver me crazy? Now

I know where the boys get it from!

Looks like Jacob found my ice pack.

Both of the boys loved looking out the window at all the lights and the cars. My room is on the 5th floor, so you can see a lot of cars and lights!

Foot Surgery

Many of you know that I had surgery on my left foot on Thursday May 7th. The doctor went in and tried to clean out a bunch of the arthritis that has been taking over my foot, removed a bunion, removed a bump on the top of my foot and realigned a couple toes and put 2 screws in them. It was quite the procedure. I am not able to put any weight on my foot for 3 weeks and then they will take the stitches out and give me a walking boot where I can have limited weight bearing for the next 3 to 4 weeks. It has only been 1 week in bed so I haven't gotten too bored yet, but I do love it when my kids come upstairs and visit me in my room. It actually has been great because I can't do any of the regular things that a mom does so I am able to just sit back and visit with the kids. That has been one nice thing about this whole adventure. One day the boys must have been needing their momma a little bit because they kept coming up and sitting in bed with me. They brought apples, bananas, applesauce (that Jacob carried up the stairs all by himself), and even chocolate popsicles to share with me in bed. You can only imagine what my sheets looked like by the end of the day. I am able to talk with the girls more now than when I am being the mom trying to get everything done around the house.

I am so grateful for my mother-in-law, Aline, who is staying with us right now until I start to get back on my feet again. She has helped me so much, both with the kids but also with myself. She is definitely getting her exercise going up and down the stairs all the time with water and ice packs for me. I love that she will come up and sit and talk with me during the times that I am not feeling very well. The girls have loved (okay, that may be exaggerating it a little bit...they endure the chores better with their grandma) doing their chores with her. The boys, well, the boys have enjoyed just being themselves. She has been baptized by fire with the antics of 2 year old twin boys.

Mother's Day May 10th, 2009 Jayden decided that he had had enough of hanging out with the family and left right before we took pictures.

Jessica and one of her friends made this cute poster for me. I loved the encouraging words of, We Believe In You and You Can Do It! Thanks Jessica and McKenna for making this poster and having everyone sign it. This was a fun unexpected surprise.

Jacob is showing off all the almonds (my mother's day gift) that he his going to eat. Both Jacob and Jayden were so cute. They would come onto my bed and say nut please. How do I say no to that? I think that I got about 10 almonds out of the entire jar. At least I had food so that the boys wanted to come up and see me.

Jessica, Jacob & JoAnn just hanging out in bed.

Here is the boys enjoying their popsicles in bed with me. Doesn't it look like we are all having such a good time? hehehe

Dr. Freed decided he wanted to pose for the picture with the new foot on Wednesday, May 13th.

Here is the new bandages that are now on my foot. There isn't as much protection so hopefully I can stay away from the boys for a couple days for it to heal just a little bit more before they bump into my foot. Notice how the toes are the same color as the bandage. (That was not done on purpose, but it does make for a pretty foot!)