Please Pray

The reason for all the abnormal pain I've had since my achilles surgery came to the surface today. I went back to teach today for the 1st time since my surgery and it didn't go well at all. I was in such pain that I was nauseated even while sitting down. Something just wasn't right, so I called the orthopedist and they agreed to see me around 1:45. The Dr. cut into my cast and saw that there was no infection and all looked normal. Then he realized that all my pain was not at the incision, but higher in my calf. He began to get immediately alarmed. He poked and prodded then sent the nurse to make a phone call. He feared it was a blood clot so they were rushing me to the hospital to the vascular lab to get a doppler ultrasound done right away. I speeded there, crutched for about 15 minutes til I found it and then had the test done. The Dr. expected to find nothing because it would be extremely rare in this kind of surgery and at my age, but it was a positive test. There is a blood clot in my left calf. I spent the next 2 hours waiting in the ER to see a Dr. to get a shot to my belly w/ blood thinner. I just got home and will go to see my family doctor at 9:00 a.m. to talk through a long term treatment, the shot will last about 12 hours.

The seriousness of a clot is that if it releases from my calf, it could go straight to my lungs and cause heart attack. I'm kind of on alert for those symptoms tonight. The good news is that its below the knee which has a less likelihood of releasing to my lungs.

Friends, this ordeal scared the @#$% of out my wife and I. I had a really hard time keeping it together. To go from a sports injury to something life threatening kind of took the wind out of my sails, and my wife who has been working so hard keeping so much on track as I've been down and out. I don't know what this means yet for my life. I have to look into disability insurance as I'm not sure when I'll be fit to get back in the classroom and that makes me quite sad.

I'll be honest, I'm still scared and need your prayer.

peace to you and your house this night,