I had the procedure, stayed one night in the hospital and then came home on October 12th. Everything was fine and I was waiting out the six week time period to see if the procedure was successful. I was not worried about anything because I was told that only 1% of the people having the procedure died and no one had developed blood clots ever since they had changed the type catheter they used to perform the procedure. It was almost two weeks later and I was alive so everything was good. On the night of October 23rd, I was having a breathing problem but I've had asthma since I was a child, nothing real bad and had never limited my activities at all. At around midnight the breathing problems became a large problem. I could barely get air into my lungs, just barely! I told Phyllis I needed to go to the hospital. We left the house and Phyllis drove me to the hospital. I was given a blood test and when I asked if they were doing the enzyme test for a heart attack, the nurse told me yes but would also check for markers that would point towards a blood clot!! I had a chest X-ray and then they came for me. I was going for a cat scan of my lungs. After the scan I was brought back to the emergency room and after about twenty minutes I saw the doctor walking toward me. By the look on her face I knew this was not going to be pleasant news. She informed me that I had a blood clot in both sides of my lungs. As you can imagine that was not great to hear. I was admitted and put on a heparin drip plus started on coumadin, a blood thinner. Six days later I was able to come home and I am feeling really good. My body will dissolve the clots on its own and the coumadin will prevent more clots from forming. I was told that the three clots, two in my lungs and one in my right leg, did not come from the procedure!!! It was a coincidence! Because the clots were in my lungs and leg it was not possible for them to have started in my heart. I've had a theory for most of my life that coincidences are just excuses for reality. I understand intellectually that the clots could not come from the procedure but I am more of the mind, 'if it talks like a duck and walks like a duck and @@@ like a duck, then it's a damn duck!!" Not that it matters much where they started!! So now I am home, doing good and trying to mentally deal with all of this. I have decided to follow one of my football coaches advice. Coach's fall back advice for all injuries was to walk it off, even if you could only walk it off on one leg!!! " Come on Brandano! Suck it up and walk it off, you don't need two arms to block!" Actually, it's not bad advice. Dwelling on it really does no good!!! You need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and move on with your life!! So now I start walking it off!!!I want to thank all my family and friends for all their kind thoughts and well wishes. You people really helped me start to walk it off!!! I have not photographed much in the last month but will be getting back to it. While I did not feel up to posting during this time I did check in. Even in the hospital, I read posts on my Iphone. I am still waiting for Ipad3!!! I saw that Jim over on Magnificent Monday had a 'favorites' theme on one of the Mondays. I thought this might be a good way for me to start my comeback lol, to just show some of my favorite images from the past. So here they are and once again I want to thank all of you for your support and well wishes. They really helped start me on my walking it off phase.
