Eye see you're back again :)

No that's not a typo, just a pun on my latest treatment. Today I had my third eye injection of TPA   Tissue Plasminogen Activator  a protein used to break down the bleed I have in my eye. People freak out a little when I tell them I'm getting a needle stuck in my eye. The nurse washes my eye, pust drops in it to enlarge the pupil. Then I go into the procedure room to have the freezing put in. This is done with huge globs of ice cold goo. It's the strangest feeling. After a period of time, as the freezing has worked it's magic, the doctor comes over to start the procedure. She puts a sterile cloth over my face with a peep hole for the eye. She attaches this HORRID wire thing to keep my eyelids open. That is the WORST part of it all. It took her less than 5 seconds to inject the TPA and I was done. Wire thing comes off and she floods my eye with sterile water, cleans it all up and I am done. My eye becomes very sensitive to the light for a few hours so I wear sunglasses even indoors for awhile. There are various symptoms afterward. Today I have a headache, it will eventually go away. My next appointment in March, I will have a Fluorescein_Angiography .  (Wonder if my eyes will glow like that when I'm done, that would be so cool!!)  Then another injection is booked after that if the doc finds it necessary. 

Thanks for stopping by again. I'm sure Eye'll see you again soon.

Latest Hospital Stay

           January 28th I woke up with dull chest pain. It became increasingly strong and painful. I knew what it was, more clots. Called 911 and off we went. Peter followed in the van behind. Reached the hospital and was put in a room right away. Vitals were taken, my port accessed to administer medication. Saw several nurses, interns and finally doctors. The pain began to subside. I had two more smaller attacks while in ER. Suddenly I hear "Code Orange" (mass casualty) -holy crap. The ER bursts with energy, doctors and nurses line both sides of the hall near the ambulance entrance. As each ambulance arrives, a nurse and other medical person (doctor/intern) grabs a patient and goes into a cubby, then the next ambulance, and another and so on.


 It was incredible to watch how organized and on the ball they all were, I was very impressed. Turns out there was a major vehicle pile up near Napanee. Well it was my turn to go for an x-ray. Then they sent me for a VQ scan. In the meantime I was telling the nurses and doctors about our planned trip to Disney. I was in tears several times as some of them told me that I may not be able to go. Tests came back showing new multiple clots. I was devastated. My main doctor tried to comfort me. I said that I know this is about my health but the trip was extremely important as it would likely be our first and last big trip with all 4 kids. The most we've ever done is go to the local beach. He told me that between himself, hematology, internal medicine, they would try to figure out what's going on and how to treat me so that I could get back home safely and quickly and go on my trip. Everyone was fantastic. I must say tho, that this time the food SUCKED! I could barely eat anything. The best was a scrumptious chocolate brownie. I lost 5lbs.


My first neighbour in my room was "Elsie", a sweet 91 year old lady. She was adorable. She went back to her retirement home the following day. My new neighbour "Marilyn" was about 50 or so. She had had a heart attack and had open heart surgery. Poor woman had such a hard time coughing and often slept sitting upright in her chair. I felt bad for her.

So Peter brought in the kids, a family photo and some flowers. One of the PSWs asked if "that was my family" I started naming off each person, with their age. Suddenly she says "Hey I know Zachary, I see him everyday!" I'm thinking WHERE does this woman see my child?? Turns out it was Zac's best friend Liam's grandmother. We sat and talked about the boys and other things for about a half hour, lovely lady.

The neighbour "Marilyn" next to me had her husband and son visit. Her son would talk about his job, a teacher. I asked him which school he worked at (because I'm nosy like that lol) and it turns out he works with my best friend Denise. So every year in May (her birthday) I wish her a happy birthday and tell her how much older she looks than me (well, for 6 months anyway lol) So I suggested to the co-worker to tell Denise how much older she looks than her best friend. I guess she was quite amused. Phew lol.

So Friday rolls around, 4 days later and my hematologist and internal medicine doc both come in and tell me that my medicine amounts need to change. They injected me with my new dosage, 12 hours later another and then 4 hours later a new blood sample. They are upped from 17,500 ml injections to 20,000ml injections. The results came back with the proper levels,yeah!!

And the best part is that I was cleared to fly. So it's off to Disney we go on Saturday! I'm so excited!!

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I wish to thank everyone for all the prayers, thoughts, kind words, emails and calls. I appreciate all of it more than you know

~Velda