my 2nd IV, after they blew out a vein in my arm
My father had cataract surgery yesterday morning and I went with Maisie and my mother to bring him there.
Out of the blue, I felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder blade. It worsened as time wore on, eventually my entire right hand was also numb.
Later that afternoon I called my doctor and was going to come in to see her.
About an hour after calling her, my LEFT arm/hand started to feel numb and breathing became difficult.
Since I have Lupus (a genetic autoimmune disorder) and Factor V Leiden (another genetic thick blood clotting issue), I called the doc again and she told me to get to the ER.
“Better safe than dead” were her words.
Not wanting to worry my father, who was recovering from surgery at my house, I simply asked him if he could watch Maisie while I ran quickly to see my doctor.
While I drove myself to the Emergency Room, the pain became nearly unbearable. I worried I was going to pass out before getting there. Luckily, I made it with no problems.
They did an EKG immediately, gave me an injection of some pain med that starts with a PH or F, then took tests to check for blood clots, did X-rays. The initial pain med did little more than make me dizzy, so eventually they gave me morphine. THAT barely worked, so I ended up with an injection of valium as well.
My blood clotting test came back too high, which scared the crap out of me, so they whisked me down the hall for an angio CT scan. While pumping the contrast dye through the crook of my arm, I felt a sharp pain.
Yay! They blew my vein.
I was sent back to my room and had to take ANOTHER blood test to check for heart attack. During the analysis, the machine breaks down.
Double yay!
Eventually I was discharged- they believe I have ANOTHER herniated disc in my spine.
My child is the destroyer of spines- I am convinced.
I was given a prescription for valium and instructions to call my doctor.
Now I have an appointment tomorrow at 10 am and I can do very little but lay in bed.
I had a lovely hour long massage today, which helped so much.
Miss Maisie and Me 
Blimey, hope all is okay??
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this child is destroying my spine, apparently. Inconvenient time for this, have a house to finish renovating.
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Stay strong my friend. I know what it’s like to have a herniated disc. I have two in my neck. Your friend Chelsea
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I have issues with l2-l4, but never this high up. This child is the destroyer of spines… I was not expecting this.
I have a teeter inversion table, but it doesn’t do much. What do you do for yours?
They gave me tramadol, flexeril, and valium.
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I am so sorry! How incredibly painful! I know how scary factor V can be, it runs rampant in my family. I hope everything is on the up and up and that you are finding some relief! Hugs
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omgosh! I am always so happy to talk to others who have or even KNOW what factor V IS. I only found out that I had it when we did the genetic DNA test from 23andme dot com, the results came back 2 weeks after I found out that I was pregnant with Maisie. I am SO glad I found out- my mom has dementia that is the result of strokes from HER factor V issues (again, she found out about hers after I found out about mine and had her own dna test done).
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Holy cow! So scary! It runs on my dad’s side. Luckily he nor any of my siblings and I got it, but I have 2 uncles, 1 aunt, and 4 cousins that have it! 2 of the cousins are girls and had to have regular shots and meds during pregnancy, did you? They didn’t know about it with my aunt and she almost died during child labor and now suffers from tons of circulation issues. It’s sad and super scary!
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Absolutely scary! I credit the heparin shots for helping bring my baby into the world- Factor V often doesn’t rear it’s ugly head until the late 30s-40s, kinda like Lupus. I STILL have to inject 2x a day with heparin, or else my blood is like pudding.
I had two TIA (small strokes) a few years ago and we had no idea why- until now. My mom’s dementia is because of her strokes/factor v.
I liken it to diabetes. I NEED to take the injections (can’t do coumadin because I am too sensitive to it) to stay alive.
I seem to (knock wood) be doing well with high dose vitamin d3, aspirin, and heparin daily.
I wish more folks knew about this.
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I have been SO disconnected from my blog for the last few months. I am just now reading your reply! I hope you are feeling well! And, YES, there needs to be more education out there for sure!
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xoxo
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