One thing we could do without…

So, we were on the way to the hospital, oh yea…  and Brad jokes that at least this time, it wasn’t one of the kids, and it was a decent hour of the day, rather than an obscene hour of the night(!), but I wish we didn’t have emergencies. Can’t we just… not?

Brad stayed home on Tuesday because he wasn’t feeling all that good, and his leg hurt. Felt somewhat like a charlie horse, or mild cramp, in the back of the calf and it was swollen and hard. We were thinking he’d managed to injure it, or not drinking enough water with too much salt (but we knew that wasn’t the case!), or perhaps it was blood pressure, or ?? who knows?? So he took aspirin, propped up his leg, and took it easy. Didn’t work. Yesterday morning, the swelling was gone, but the pain had moved up behind his knee. He was also pale and wiped out. uh-oh…

We called the clinic and asked if he could go straight to a specialist. The sent us to a wonderful internist at a local hospital, who, after a quick exam, had him in a wheelchair heading for an ultrasound. It was a blood clot, specifically, deep vein thrombosis (DVT)! I am so grateful that we took this ‘sore leg’ seriously! I think now that we could have gotten him in sooner, if we had understood it better (so don’t forget to go back up to the link up there and study!). He had only a couple of symptoms that, to us, tied it the possibility of a clot. It wasn’t until we decided to go to the hospital that we recalled a chest pain he’d had early in the week. It had felt like a pinched nerve or rib out of place. No coughing, no breathing trouble, etc., it just felt like he’d slept wrong (and who knows, maybe it was, maybe not?). He did not have any redness, or hot spots or any other warning signs (not warning enough to us!) but what made us worry was that it was only one leg sore and swollen, not the other, and he didn’t recall twisting or bumping it, or otherwise causing an injury! It didn’t make sense!!

To make a long story a little shorter, because I am tired, he is being taken care of very well and they are running extensive tests on him. He’s in intensive care and being supervised closely. He’s tired and bored and wants to come home, but we both know he is good right where he is for as long as it takes to get him healthy! They ran a CT scan yesterday and also found clots in his lung, but not so bad as to freak out the doctors. They are just keeping a closer watch on him as the medicines do their work.

The kids are coping well. They talk to dad every day by phone. Wish I could make the cats understand as they know something is up and are very clingy. Cannot explain to them! I’m taking the kids to breakfast with Santa tomorrow, then they’ll go stay with friends while I spend some more time with Brad… sigh…

It is a VERY GOOD idea for expats (or anyone moving to a new town) to know exactly where the nearest/best hospital is. Not just where it is, but exactly how to get there, and how to GET IN to the emergency room, etc. (yes, you’d think that should be obvious… but it’s not always!)  It’s even better, for comfort and ease of mind, when you know that it is a very nice hospital with wonderful doctors. I sure wish we’d find a better way to investigate local medical facilities than with emergencies! Next place we go, I’m scheduling a tour as soon as we land…