Well, now we know why my leg is swelling–I have developed a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis) from my ankle to my thigh.
Some of y’all know I had a clot about five years ago that was throwing off clots to my lungs (pulmonary embolism). Throughout this cancer process, we have been extra careful considering my history of blood clots. I have been battling a little phebitis (surface clots) recently, but that seemed to be under control with medicine.
After the benefit at Stewart, I noticed my leg was swelling, including  my thigh (which has never happened before) and I thought I was just standing up too much that weekend. Throughout the following week, I laid around, thinking the swelling would go down if I stayed off of it. It didn’t. And the next week, I showed the girls in the chemo room. They had me see the nurse practitioner who gave me medicine to see if that would help reduce swelling. It wasn’t  acting like the DVT I had before.
I had swelling issues after the first round of chemo. Just my ankle, but there were no clots and this was a side effect of chemo. The swelling went away two weeks after ending the first round of chemo treatments.
We thought this was the same thing, because it does not feel anything like the DVT felt before–no muscle cramps, no spasms, no shortness of breath, no racing heartbeat.
Thinking this was the same type of swelling from chemo, were considering  lymphodemia — which it typical of patients with “lower” cancers like colorectal, prostate, ovarian and colon.
Anyway, I was wrong– but I haven’t been so good at this “self diagnosis ” business lately. But the nurse practitioner  and the doctor  agreed with me. They were no thinking clot either, which makes me feel a little better. But the scans show a big one, but we are catching it early-ish.
The good news is, I do not have to be in the hospital just yet as long as this round of treatment goes well! The bad news is, I still have to lay up at home with my leg propped up and take shots in the stomach to help disolve the DVT.
The bad news is you can’t do anything but sleep and watch TV from this position. But the good news is that I can possibly get all my thank you notes done! Another bit of good news is that we seem to be catching it before it starts throwing off clots to other locations (that makes it a lot more dangerous). I think there’s a lot more good news than bad in this situation– I just need to rest and relax. That’s not hard to do, right?
For all of those who heard me say for the past two weeks that if I can just get through May 15, I will hybernate for the rest of the summer– God apparently agreed with me, or he is making sure I keep my word about hybernating.
God has been so good to us! We have been incredibly blessed throughout our lives, but even more so through this cancer process. With receiving the incredible news of being in remission this week, I have been saying the Audrey Hepburn quote from the movie, “Sabrina” saying, “I have been cured, but now I have to get over the cure!” Ha!
Please keep us in your prayers. Pepper has been wonderful. But I need all of the prayers I can get to be at home at least for the next seven days with all of the Hee Haw singing and dancing–every day–all of the time! Oh, my goodness! I’m trying not to think about it too much!