Sarah's DVT...Be Careful, I'm Listening

Today, Sarah had a cardiologist appointment and ever since her DVT she is always concerned when she has a doctor appointment. I think she is scared of being back in the hospital. A couple of her experiences there in August were pretty scary.

I think the scariest part for Sarah took place the evening before her surgery and the morning of surgery. Sunday evening the surgeon came into Sarah's room and was pretty somber. He was describing Sarah's clots and the dangers involved. He was a serious guy and I know that I was feeling pretty worried about what could happen to Sarah if the larger clot was not taken care of quickly. After about 10 minutes or so of talking about options, he told us that the best plan at this point was to try to remove the 12 inch clot in the upper thigh and abdomen -- that was the most dangerous one at the moment. He proceeded to tell us how he would go in and remove the clot from her leg and I think he actually said "pull out" the clot. As he was talking about the procedure, his demeanor was very grave. He mentioned several times that he would try to "pull out" the clot in her leg and try to make sure none of it broke off and went to her lungs. 

After he explained the procedure, he left the room and we noticed Sarah was a little anxious. She started asking us if the doctor was going to "pull off" her leg. We told her, of course not -- that he was going to take out her clot and make her leg better. That did not seem to satisfy her, as she asked again and again if he was going to "pull off" her leg. We realized she had heard the doctor say "pull out" and thought he said "pull off" and she thought he was talking about her leg. We told her that she would be ok and that he was just going to fix her leg so she could walk and run and play again.

She finally went to sleep and very early the next morning they came to get her. She asked us again if the doctor was going to "pull off" her leg. We kept assuring her that he wasn't. I was already very stressed and worried, and to see her so concerned only made it worse. I knew that I had not totally convinced her that her leg would still be there when she woke up. It was heartbreaking. 

Hours later the surgery was finished, and we sat with her. As soon as she was oriented, she asked if her leg was still there and moved the blanket to look. She was quite relieved to see she still had her leg!

We realized that even though Sarah did not appear to be listening to the doctor and even though she was on a lot of pain medication and seemed kind of out of it  -- she WAS listening and formed her own conclusion from what the surgeon was saying. Lesson learned.