Hello Blood Clot: At The Hospital

I was going to try to keep this short, but alas, I failed...enter the three-part series. 

So we get to the hospital and are escorted to Labor & Delivery where they treat most pregnant patients who come in for urgent needs (i.e. without an appointment with their regular doctor). Luckily they had a wheel chair to get me around, which I was really grateful. We were escorted to a room and pretty quickly had a nurse checking my vitals and getting an account of my symptoms. They also immediately checked for the baby heartbeat and made sure everything in that arena was ok.

The doctor came in 15 or 20 minutes after that. It was actually my regular family practice doctor who happened to be on rotation in that unit. So we had a familiar face to work with. He knew my activity level and low key history so far. After asking the routine questions about my symptoms, he took a look at my legs. He preformed some touch tests on the sensitive areas on my hip and pelvic areas. We noticed some swelling and discoloring on the left leg so he did measurements and look at the difference between each side.

There were mainly two possible causes for my issues: 1) normal pregnancy discomfort that we can't do much about; pain might be more of a injury somehow and would heal on it's own, or 2) blood clot, also known as deep vein thrombosis, DVT.

My only risk for DVT is being pregnant. Pregnant women have increased levels of estrogen which means blood clots more readily as it helps the placenta to work and prepares for labor. However, typically only 1 in 1,000 women will actually experience a clot. Other risk factors include previous blood clots, family history, obesity, smoking, prolonged immobility (bedrest or long distance travel), multiple births, or being older than 35 while pregnant.

I don't fit with any of those. After bringing in another doctor who again measured my legs, went through the series of questions about my symptoms and history, they consulted and decided to order an ultrasound of my leg. Both doctors really didn't seem to think DVT was the issue, but thought it better to be safe. Maybe they were just trying to be reassuring...

We had to wait for someone in Radiology to come in, so of course there was more waiting. As Jake and I hung out on my waiting bed, I actually found myself quite comfortable, more so than I'd been in a few days. But then I'd get up to go to the bathroom and the pain would come back. 

Finally in Radiology, the technician focused the ultrasound on inner leg up to the pelvic area. This seemed strange to me because my pain and been in the outer hip and down the front/outer part of the leg. So the area she was looking at wasn't the "problem area" in my eyes. Obviously these doctors and staff know more than I do. 

After getting back and waiting for a little more, the nurse comes in will six or seven test tubes and says he's going to put a catheter in my arm. Jake and I are like...soooo, what does this mean? And Jake asks, "Is she getting admitted?" I, of course, thought he was off and that wasn't going to happen. But sure enough, the doctor comes in shortly after and confirms that I do have a clot. 

And that we caught it early. 

They are going to get me started on a blood thinning shot and keep me overnight for observation. She said I could probably go home and be fine, but that they wanted to make sure I didn't have immediate negative reactions to the treatment. She explained a lot more about what this means for the pregnancy moving forward (see next post.) 

They take my blood for tests and insert the catheter. Then they hook up me to some sort of system to keep track of my vitals (I think?). I was on two different types, but ended up with three trackers along my bra line and three higher on my chest. Then they move me down to the 5th floor to stay. The staff down there then checked my vitals, baby heartbeat, and got the rundown before things quieted down for the evening.