posted by Mary Lello, Monday, April 13, 2009, 8:29 PM

Ok, God, I think I've met as many tests as I can possibly meet. I've been a good girl all year long and I've flossed every night so what the F(#* is with the tests, constant tests of our strengths? HUH?

Today I woke Jim from his morning nap around 10:30 after only sleeping for 45 minutes so we could go off to see Dr. Weisburg. An easy check in appointment, should be able to go to lunch and then home so that I could see a couple clients of my own in the late afternoon. Our good friend Matthew was coming by to be with Jim and cook dinner for us with a small gathering of some other friends. Easy day, right? WRONG!!!!

Jim has had some right leg swelling and, yes, I was concerned about it but like most things it was worse over the weekend when no one was around to talk to about it. So I mentioned it today to Dixie, Weisburg's PA, and she suggested we get ultrasound since being on chemo as well as having cancer makes Jim prime for blood clots. OK, so off to Brighten Ave. from the Scarborough center with barely enough time for lunch of some kind (no carbo's no sugar what the F#)$ do we do for lunch?) before getting out to Brighten MMC. Thought I lost my wallet, no ID for Jim, no blue card, no insurance card, minor break down on that one. Pull the car apart while Jim is getting ultrasound and ta-da, wallet is in the back under the seat ... phew!! We were told to wait a few minutes for the results. Nope. Now we are told to go straight back to Weisburgs office. Hmmmm, something is amiss. I called Weisburg's office and was told by our angel, Dawn, who answers all our questions and calls in all our RX that yes, come back, there is a clot, they must see Jim and start treatment immediately. OK .... next?!

Back to Weisburg where we find out that the clot is pretty large in that right leg, from the medial aspect of his thigh to below his knee. Yup, BIG clot .... holy shit. We must start Tinzaparin shots to dissolve the clot today and continue these every day for the next 7 days, saturday and sunday included! And on Friday we begin coumadin to thin the blood ... for the next 6 months. No leafy greens. HA!!! Ok, what the hell do I feed this guy anyway now?!?!?!

It's now 3:30 in the afternoon, Jim has not slept, he usually has had 2 good naps by now but he has not slept at all at this point. The entire right side is breaking down and he can barely walk. Dixie asks if we need a wheel chair .... 'yes, please!!'. I'm realizing that I have clients coming to my office starting at 4:00 and it's 3:30 and I'm a total wreck and still at the Scarborough Medical center. I'm a lit-tle stressed at this point and ask permission (yes, you read that right ) to please be able to go out to my car where I have phone numbers of my clients so I can call and cancel the afternoon appointments today ... maybe? YA THINK?!?!!??!

They wheel Jim out to our car around 3;45 and we make it home by 4;00 where Jim can barely get up our stairs and into the house and collapses on the couch. Big day ... HUGE day .... incredibly HARD day and he's exhausted!!!!

Thank you God that Paula was here to clean our house for us today and that Matthew and Todd are here to fix dinner for us and MaryMargaret and Alice are gathering to help eat and clean up after and just help us through the remainder of THIS day. And I must get on the phone to caretakers and Dr. Belanger to find out about supplements and how they must change now .... and they do because the rest of the labs results had come in and he said "It’s too bad we didn’t start the lumbrokinase sooner. The the labs I did revealed that he was at risk for a blood clot (thrombin-antithrombin and fibrinogen were both elevated)". So increase this, decrease that, stop this and that. Ok, got it! NEXT!!!?

Holly schmolly God, I really am not sure I can handle anymore OK? I mean really, give us a break!!! If for some unknown reason you must hit us again with ONE MORE TEST, then let's shoot for next week, OK? And the whole thing with the thought of losing my wallet, well that was just a little over the top and I'm not sure I quite understood that one so maybe next time you don't have to have quite such a full agenda for me. Just a thought!

NEXT!?

Off to bed where I may skip my prayers tonight,

Mary