Went to get my catheter placed on Monday morning, and everything went well as far as placement, etc. Came back to recovery room and had some bleeding. They put pressure on, the docs came to look at it, and I was released. Phyllis had just dropped me off and made it back to her house when I called her in a panic. As I got up the stairs and went to change clothes, I noticed the blood had started again. I sat down (well laid down)... huge mistake! the blood started pouring at that point. I called Phyllis back and she turned around to come get me. One hand on the wheel the other reaching for the roll of paper towels (sorry I ruined your passenger seat, Phyllis!) trying to sop up the blood. I made back up to the PACU where I instantly recognized my great nurse from earlier that day and just whimpered/cried "please can you help me?" and when she said yes and grabbed my wheelchair I just let it all go and whimpered for what seemed like forever. Even when the hilarious interventional radiology attending came back personally to hold pressure on it and clean it up, and he made me laugh, I was still pretty scared. Then they shot the area with an epi/lido injection that numbed it and constricted the bleeding, bandaged it up, took my vitals for an hour, and let me go.
I got home, ordered dinner, took some tylenol and fell asleep, exhausted, at 8PM. At midnight I heard the door rattling and it woke me slightly, just enough to be aware of my surroundings (thank the universe for timing). I felt what I thought was sweat but when I put my hand to it, my hand was covered in blood. I was bleeding like a machete wound to the chest (or so it looked). Luckily for me the rattling at the door was Benjamin coming home. I came downstairs and went to the kitchen and was like. I. Need. Help. and showed him the blood. He didn't freak out at all! He said "what should I do?" and I said, call 911 and get an ambulance and I am going to go up and back a bag for the hospital. He helped me put on my shoes and my previously bloodied shirt (I packed a new one), and then helped me get into the ambulance.
Once I got there I had a nice team of docs who tried the pressure method, which worked for a second (long enough for them to clean up the blood on me and my arms and trash my shirt and get me a gown) and then the bleeding started again. My ER doc was great. He was like, "mmmkay, this ain't gonna work honey" and said we would do more epi/lido. I asked for something to calm me down or help with the pain that all the pressure had caused, and Nurse Amazing brought me ativan and morphine together (hallelujah). Taking the needles of lidocaine and epinephrin were easy at that point. Then he said we would use this piece of foam that melts into a gel when it hits blood, and acts as a dressing to stop the bleeding, then he would put in a purse stitch to close up where the oozing was coming from (or where he thought it was coming from anyway, no one really knows... scary).
well, that all worked out pretty well, he watched it for a while, I fell asleep, he came back and bandaged it up and then asked me if I would like to just stay there in the ER and sleep for a couple of hours and then have Noah pick me up there instead of my house... to take me to apheresis! The docs had decided I should definitely go ahead and go to apheresis, despite all the blood loss, and I was really happy the timing worked out (if I had woken up at 3AM instead, I wouldn't have made my appointment).
Anyway! Noah came, we had coffee, we chatted, he got me to the doc on time, and i started apheresis. The nurses there were amazing, and the facility was nice. The machine was CRAZY gigantic, but having the double catheter was so sweet, I am not even kidding. Not having to get poked at all? hell yes!
they processed my blood through the machine 4 times (my entire blood volume x 4!) and it catches stem cells and a few platelets. I was shooting for "3" for the total procedure. I am not sure what that number means... I am gonna ask tomorrow, but my nurse called me tonight to say I got "3.9" so yay! She said that means I will go in tomorrow to get more, but they will be my insurance stem cells, and that I have enough that I am not likely to have to go in Thursday (unless something goes wrong tomorrow). Double yay!
So despite the horrible bleeding scare, and the pain, and the ambulance ride, damage to my sheets, having my roommate have to button my bloody shirt over me, etc. the positives do outweigh the negatives! A catheter has been an incredible convenience, and the stem cell collection was a success! And the bone pain has gone down a lot too since the first couple of days.
My next worries are really just keeping this catheter tight, clean, etc. so the wounds can heal, getting things ready for the hospital room (I will need help shopping, as I don't think I will be able to lift things, carry things for a while!). But one step at a time. Feels like I keep hitting stumbling blocks, but eventually get back up and keep moving forward!
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