Again?

My day began with a 5:30am phone call from my mother. Of course, before she could say anything, I asked if everything was alright, to which she replied, "No. Your dad is in the hospital and he has a Pulmonary Embolism." Unbelievable, yet not entirely surprising. My maternal grandmother and mother have a history of blood clots; two of my three brothers, Ken and Scott have had Pulmonary Emboli; of course there was mine in December of 2010 and my oldest son, Nicholas' last July while in Guatemala. That's FIVE of us now! Wow!

I guess the surprise is that we all assumed this genetic tendency (or whatever you want on call it) came from my mother's side of the family. Now we know the truth... it comes from both parents, which probably explains the high rate of Pulmonary Emboli in my immediate family. This gives me more reason to pursue genetic testing in the very near future to determine what is causing the blood clots, whether it be a genetic mutation or a specific gene, and to take the necessary steps to prevent it in the rest of our family members (and their future children). 

Back to my dad, I don't have a lot of information at this point. He had pain under his right arm last night (Sunday evening) that continued to worsen to the point that my parents made the decision to take him to the Emergency Room. I'm so thankful they made that choice. Perhaps they were thinking it was a heart attack, but once at the hospital, an EKG revealed that he was not having a heart attack. They then proceeded to do a CT scan which revealed blood clots in (I believe) both lungs. They immediately began giving him injections of Lovenox and started him on Coumadin, which is a blood thinner. The Lovenox is fast acting whereas the Coumadin will need to build up in his system until he is at a therapeutic level. 

I believe they performed an echocardiogram on his heart this morning. Frequently, when one has a Pulmonary Embolism, the heart is stressed which causes enlargement. I don't know the results of that test yet but will let you know as soon as I do. He was also given Morphine to lessen the pain, so he is very drowsy. He is not in ICU, which I believe is a good thing. My brother, Scott spent 2 days in ICU, Nick was there for 3 days and my stint was 5 days! He's in a regular room and is able to get up and move around a bit, so I take all of that as a good sign that (I hope) he is not suffering from a life-threatening PE. 

I am on the plane as I type this, headed to Oklahoma to be with my parents. I won't arrive in OKC until later this evening so I likely won't see my dad until tomorrow (Tuesday). My mom and I will be at the hospital early in the morning so we can speak with his doctor when he does his rounds. I'll write again tomorrow after I have more information. Please pray for healing for my dad and peace for both my mom and dad. They have a big move coming up next March when they relocate from Oklahoma to Minnesota, so I'm sure their minds are filled with worry and concern about how they will accomplish all that lies ahead of them. 

Thank you in advance for your prayers. 

Love, Laura