News of a Different Colour…

/ Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

When the appointment letter arrived from the hospital, I assumed it was another check-up. When I arrived, I had an ECG before being summoned to the consultants’ office.

He talked about how clever my heart had been, finding its own bypass solution to the severely blocked artery and how strong and healthy it had become.

Then he said that my breathlessness wasn’t caused by my heart and that something must be wrong with my lungs. He remembered that back in March, my leg and foot had been swollen, and he had prescribed water tablets which hadn’t done a thing to reduce the swelling. When he saw how bad it was now, he looked worried and started talking about blood clots.

This was when worry crept into the office and sat on my shoulder.

In my teens, I had a deep vein thrombosis in my leg after giving birth. I was forbidden to move in case it travelled, so I knew why he looked worried. He didn’t make it clear whether he thought there could be a blood clot in my chest and/or my leg, so I wasn’t surprised when he arranged for two scans to be done urgently.

I had barely reached home when the phone rang. This was the appointment for the first scan. An hour later, another call about the second. Both are to be done on Monday afternoon.

I am all for finding solutions to my problems, but why does it have to sound so serious? Is it possible to be walking around for nearly a year with lethal blood clots in your body? That doesn’t sound feasible, so it must be something else. The only trouble is, something else might be worse…

I have encountered serious before, what with cancer and two heart attacks, but I have the feeling that whatever this turns out to be might test my bravery to the limit…

Anyway, enough of all this rubbish. We are seeing the new baby this afternoon!

39 thoughts on “News of a Different Colour…”

  4. At least they’re seeing you immediately. There’s nothing worse than having to wait and deal with days and days of worry. And have fun with the new baby. I hope your visit lightens your mood. Good luck on Monday. <3 Hugs.

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  7. Most things related to health can be quite scary and I totally understand why you may be anxious about everything. Enjoy your time with the baby and I truly hope it’s nothing serious.

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  8. There is nothing like a newborn to chase away the gloom. I do think it’s good the scans were scheduled so quickly. Here’s hoping for a permanent solution!!

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  10. That’s so worrying. I don’t blame you for being frightened. Although “they” do love to give us the worst case scenarios. The stress of worry won’t help anything. I hope plenty of happy thoughts will keep your mind off it. A visit from the baby is certainly a bright spot. Big hugs.

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  16. Holding thumbs it isn’t as bad as you think. My husband had a venal signal thrombosis in early Jan this year and my dad had a pulmonary embolism in June 2021. I’ve become quite an expert on blood clots and their treatment.

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