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It is presently almost ten thirty at night, and I am writing this on my PDA while sitting in exam room 12 in the emergency room at South Lake Hospital in Clermont, Florida. My mom is napping, with a half dozen wires coming off of her and running to the machine that monitors her heart rate, breathing rate and oxygen level. We are waiting to hearback from the radiologist for the results of her CAT scan.
Four days ago she seemed perfectly normal, although her INR* was down to 2.4. That's kind of low, but generally not in scary territory. Three days ago she started showing symptoms like slurred speech and slowed reactions. That's not unusual, but normally the symptoms pass in about 24 hours.
Last night she was woken by stabbing chest pains. A check of her blood showed her INR had risen to 3.8. It is good for it to move back in that direction, but one side-effect of the blood thinning rapidly is that she starts to throw blood clots.
By today she was still not showing any improvement. Not only was her speech slurred, but her typing on the computer had become incredibly garbled. Another blood draw showed an INR of 4.3, but I was still very concerned by the symptoms. All of the signs indicated that she was having a pulmonary embolism. At about 6:30 I brought her here to the hospital.
EKG: Normal
Chest X-Ray: Normal
It was about 9:00 when she was taken in for CAT scans of her head and chest. The tests were completed an hour and fifteen minutes ago. It feels like the radiologist is taking forever.
As I sit here, I am not sure whether I did the right thing in bringing her here. The odds are that the test will come back showing that she did have an embolism. But the only real treatment is to put the patient on blood thinners, which she is already on. It could very well be that she has gotten thousands of dollars in tests, only to be told to go home and get some rest.
On the other hand, I don't think I could live with myself if I did nothing, only to have her die. How can a person sleep at night, wondering if only I had taken her to the hospital...?
So here we are, waiting. And waiting. And waiting...
*NOTE: INR is ameasure of the blood clotting factor. A lower number means the blood is thicker and clots more quickly. A higher number means the blood is thinner and takes longer to clot. A normal INR would be around 5.
Four days ago she seemed perfectly normal, although her INR* was down to 2.4. That's kind of low, but generally not in scary territory. Three days ago she started showing symptoms like slurred speech and slowed reactions. That's not unusual, but normally the symptoms pass in about 24 hours.
Last night she was woken by stabbing chest pains. A check of her blood showed her INR had risen to 3.8. It is good for it to move back in that direction, but one side-effect of the blood thinning rapidly is that she starts to throw blood clots.
By today she was still not showing any improvement. Not only was her speech slurred, but her typing on the computer had become incredibly garbled. Another blood draw showed an INR of 4.3, but I was still very concerned by the symptoms. All of the signs indicated that she was having a pulmonary embolism. At about 6:30 I brought her here to the hospital.
EKG: Normal
Chest X-Ray: Normal
It was about 9:00 when she was taken in for CAT scans of her head and chest. The tests were completed an hour and fifteen minutes ago. It feels like the radiologist is taking forever.
As I sit here, I am not sure whether I did the right thing in bringing her here. The odds are that the test will come back showing that she did have an embolism. But the only real treatment is to put the patient on blood thinners, which she is already on. It could very well be that she has gotten thousands of dollars in tests, only to be told to go home and get some rest.
On the other hand, I don't think I could live with myself if I did nothing, only to have her die. How can a person sleep at night, wondering if only I had taken her to the hospital...?
So here we are, waiting. And waiting. And waiting...
*NOTE: INR is ameasure of the blood clotting factor. A lower number means the blood is thicker and clots more quickly. A higher number means the blood is thinner and takes longer to clot. A normal INR would be around 5.