The end...we thought.

I had my IVC Filter placed on September 14th, and I had to wear the pink cast for one more week after that.  I don't think I've ever looked forward to anything like I did getting that cast off.  It was probably the most unpleasant experience of my life!

Anyway, I went from the cast to a walking boot for two weeks (which included a trip to Disney World - more on that later).  After two weeks of that, I was set free!  I was getting around pretty well but didn't quite trust myself.  I would find myself trying to walk without bending my ankle, so afraid that I would do something to it and damage it again.  In reality, my ankle is probably stronger now that than it's ever been...amazing what a little hardware will do.

Since I was back on my feet and moving around quite a bit, and enough time had passed that it was likely the blood clot in my leg had time to dissolve we went ahead and scheduled the IVC Filter removal.  I had planned to have it done while I was out of school for Thanksgiving Break.  I was strangely excited to have it removed because it would mark the end of a crazy 6 months and hopefully end the even crazier medical bills!

So, the morning of November 20th, I went in to have my filter removed.  I was a little more nervous this time because they were going to have to go in through my neck, through my heart and then down to grab hold of the filter and pull it back out.  C-razy!  Just didn't seem right.  I was relieved when they put a little something in my IV and I passed out.  I woke up thinking it was all over.  I was wrong.  I was still laying on the table in Interventional Radiology when I woke up.  The super nice nurse, who had been with me during the filter placement, had a pretty concerned look on her face.  They had also turned off the fun music I had fallen asleep to.  When I asked if they got it out, she told me they had to stop the procedure.

What now???  They showed me on the gigantic screen that the IVC filter had done it's job and "caught" several pieces of blood clot.  Unfortunately, there was a also a large piece of clot above the filter.  As in, I was at serious risk of pulmonary embolism again and I didn't even know it.  They admitted me to the hospital right away and it looked like I was going to be having hospital turkey for Thanksgiving.  By Tuesday night they had 3 different doctors on the case as well as my doctor in Dallas.  They decided since the clot posed the biggest threat at the moment I needed to go ahead and begin Lovenox injections again.  Yay!!  There was some talk about placing a second filter above the first one but nobody seemed too confident that was the best option.  Since it was the Holiday it didn't look like anything was going to happen that week so the doctors released me to go home on Wednesday, as long as I did the injections and promised to follow up with the surgeon.  I was so, so, so thankful to get to spend Thanksgiving at home with my family.  We had a great day, including an epic Nerf gun fight...Mom, I still don't know how that dart ended up in the mashed potatoes! ;)

We got an appointment with the surgeon this past Tuesday morning and he felt like our best option was a brand new procedure that had been developed at Harvard and only done one time in Fort Worth. He went on to say that this was originally designed to be done on clots in the lung, but he did it on a heart, and feels pretty confident it will work for me.  So, he's going to perform a procedure on me that's really never been done before.  Awesome!  I can't wait!

He called me yesterday morning (Saturday) to let me know that the surgery would be performed at Plaza Hospital instead of Harris because there would be too much red tape there, being a brand-new procedure and all.  Awesome!  He's supposed to call tomorrow to finalize the details!

So, hopefully, sometime this week it really will be the end of this crazy story!