I’ve said it before- I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook Memories. Today, it reminded me that six years ago, I was fighting a giant uphill medical mountain. Besides doing a round a plasmapheresis(at the time they believed I had MG- Myasthenia Gravis). It turned out the multiple blood clots were found in my lungs (PE’s).
The nurse and doctor worked quickly with a heparin drip. Then the reality of things came into focus. I would be at risk for additional clots for the rest of my life and would need to take a blood thinner forever too. I was placed on Eliquis, which requires less work than Warfarin.
It was a scary diagnosis and I couldn’t do anything but follow the doctor’s orders. I knew having blood clots, especially in my lungs, was bad, but I just wanted to know what then soultion was going to be. Sometimes it amazes me to think about what I have gone through and that I am still hopeful and open to the next medical adventure.
The good news is that despite going through three rounds of plasmapheresis, doctors were able to dismiss the MG diagnosis and needed to look for other answers. I had a muscle biopsy to confirm that it was not MG. This didn’t help the blood clots, but was still very good news.
The bad news was a couple weeks later, I developed other clots, this time it was a DVT in my right arm. Since I developed a clot while taking Eliquis, the doctors considered that a failure and placed me on Warfarin and with all the monitoring it required.
I was happy to find out at least that I could do my own monitoring of my INR for being on Warfarin. I was given a little machine similar to a blood sugar machine that uses a sample of blood. I do this once a week and then the clinic calls me back and gives me instructions for taking the Warfarin for the week. This is a big difference than when my father was on Warfarin and had to go to the clinic every week for a blood draw. So far, (knock on wood) the Warfarin has done its job to prevent future clots.
Memories give us strength. They remind us what we have been through. For some people finding out they had multiple clots in their lungs might of put them over the edge, but not me- I challenge myself to keep going and not let anything stop me!