Ever since we got home from the hospital, Maegan has been doing much better. Even though she was up and walking as much as possible (we even made a trip to Lufkin!), she started noticing substantial pain, swelling and discoloration in her left foot every time she stood up or even put it on the ground. She knew from the first time it happened that the culprit was blood clots.
Last Thursday afternoon we saw Maegan's cardiovascular specialist to see just how extensive the clotting was. He performed a quick ultrasound of her left leg in his office and instantly saw a 6 inch clot behind the knee. He was going to schedule her for surgery that next day to remove the clot but was unable to get the right equipment ordered in time. He rescheduled Maegan for this morning (8/3).
We arrive around 8am to get all of the paperwork squared away and were immediately sent back to the surgery wing. All of the preparations were taken care of and we waited for the anesthesiologist until around 12:30pm. As they wheeled her away the nurse told me that the procedure should not take much longer than 1-2 hours.
Five and a half hours later Maegan is finally brought in to the ICU for pain management. Dr. D grabbed me and took me over to his computer to show me the x-ray images from the surgery. She had extensive clotting in one of the main veins right around the knee that required special attention. Basically the clot had formed a wall stopping blood flow almost totally. Her body had reacted by forming extra veins around the blockage allowing her leg to still function (and not swell into a tomato).
It took several hours to break up the hardened clots and get the catheter into all of the correct veins but the surgery was successful. Knowing what we do now, it looks like the clots have been there for a while now and have been one of the main reasons for the hospital stays so far. We don't know this for sure but the pain she is having in her leg is just like the pain she had at the beginning of the summer. Time will tell if this theory is correct.
The next step is to get Maegan to a specialist for both the clotting and also not forget about the muscles.
Please continue to pray for her healing!
