Thursday, December 6, 2012

A week of medical appointments, but no solutions

Today was the last of four medical appointments this week. Monday, Glenn had a procedure to move the tip of the catheter in his abdomen to see if that would alleviate the pain he has on the initial drain of dialysis each night. The Dr. said it was positioned well and wasn't blocked so he didn't see the need to move it. We did find out that morning that Glenn's platelet count is still very low, but not until after the procedure was done. I think if they had know about the low platelets they probably wouldn't have done the procedure because of the high risk of bleeding. Tuesday, we went to the renal clinic for Glenn's appointment with the nephrologist. He still is stumped as to why Glenn is having blood in his drainage bag each morning after finishing the nightly dialysis. He was not pleased that the Dr. who did the procedure Monday didn't move the tip of the catheter anyway because it is clearly causing pain and probably being sucked up against something in the peritoneum and possibly irritating and causing the bleeding. He suggested that Glenn see the Dr. who did the catheter placement to see if he has any idea why the bleeding. That visit was scheduled for today. Wednesday we went to G'ville for his appointment with the oncologist. He also is at a loss as to why the platelets stay low. The bone marrow is producing adequate amounts, so it must be a problem with them being used up somehow. It's a mystery for now. But Glenn doesn't need to go back to G'ville for another six weeks. Today we saw the surgeon who did the catheter placement. His opinion is that the reason for the bleeding is the low platelets and warned us that Glenn needs to be very careful not to fall or have any injury because he could bleed easily and too much. He seemed sure that the oncologist would come up with a reason for the low platelets. He said those guys always do eventually figure those things out, (the hematologists).
So that was our busy week with medical stuff. This weekend we are going to two Christmas parties: one is a fancy dinner with the old folks here where we live, and the other is what our family started last year called "Thankmas". Last year Andy and his girlfriend had a turkey they wanted to fix so they came up with that idea. We didn't get to go last year but we do this year. It will include our family and Andy's girlfriend's family. Always fun and entertaining.
We don't have any appointments soon so I won't be on here unless something comes up. I'll just check in once in a while to let you know that there's nothing happening. 

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