Ed – Blood clot in leg

Ed is in the hospital and doing ok after surgery to remove another blood clot from an artery in his leg. This one is behind his knee. He woke up in the middle of the night with aching and tingling in his leg and then noticed that his foot was cool to the touch. Same symptoms as last year when he had a blood clot in his groin.

Friday morning, I’m working from home, and Kim is there cleaning when Ed asked me to see if his left foot felt cooler to the touch than the other… and sure enough it did. He called his surgeon and was told to go to the emergency room. Thank goodness Kim was there to take him while I tied up loose ends at work.

When I got there he was already told he would probably need surgery, but they would do an MRI or CT to determine the next step. At first they thought they could dissolve it with meds, but after the test they decided to do the surgery.

As Kim was walking through the hall she noticed our neighbor, Bob, in one of the other ER rooms. His wife, Janet, passed out at home and they were running tests on her.

Everything happened so fast after they decided to do the surgery on Ed. We found out that Janet’s heart was failing and they needed to take her to surgery for a pacemaker. Tim was on his way to the hospital and when he arrived, Kim left to be with Bob. Then we learned the surgeon that was going to do Ed’s procedure was going to also do Janet’s.

Dr. Scopetta did the surgery last year on Ed, but he was on vacation as well as Ed’s primary physician. It was like they all decided to take off when they heard Ed was back in the hospital.

The surgeon came in to tell Ed about the procedure and said they were going to do the pacemaker first and then the surgery to remove the clot. Ed’s eyes almost dropped out of his head because he thought they meant they were giving him a pacemaker.

We assumed the pacemaker he was talking about was for Janet – so we told him we knew her and they were our neighbors…. they live at 48 Songbird Lane, we are at 49 Songbird. Ed said ‘ she was a very nice lady’ and the surgeon said ‘she still is’

After that there were messages back and forth between the doctors, nurses, Janet and Ed. Ed said to tell her he was upset that he had to wait until her surgery was done.

The surgery took about 2 hours and we were told he would be in recovery for about an hour. We sat in the waiting room on the floor he would be going to – but it was taking forever. The nurse said he would be on his way shortly, but we waited and waited. Finally when he got to his room, we found out they kept him in recovery because he was complaining of chest discomfort. Not chest pains, but chest discomfort. He looked really good and was laughing and joking – laughing with Kim…. she can always make him laugh.

Janet was in ICU and doing ok. She will probably be moved to Ed’s floor today. While we were waiting for Ed’s surgery to be over, we spent some time with Bob. Janet lost both parents and is an only child and Bob’s family are all out of state, so it worked out that we were all there together. I know he appreciated the love and support from Kim.

After seeing him, we all felt a little more relaxed and headed for home… it was around 10:00 (way beyond my sleep time). When I got home I discovered we had no power. A huge storm passed through and possibly a mini tornado touched down somewhere in our area. As of this morning there was still no power.

I will be going to the hospital shortly and will report on how he is doing.

Even though the surgery is over and Ed is doing ok – It is never too late to ask for prayers… so I’m asking for prayers for Ed that he continues to improve and will be home and, also, that Janet makes a full recovery and will be able to resume her daily activities.

I don’t know what I would do without Tim and Kim by my side…….