In the hopes of helping anyone else from having the experience I am going through I am going to share my “adventure”
I have had Afib (irregular heart beat) for years. As a result, I have been on a blood thinner for years.
The purpose of the Xarelto is to thin the blood to avoid blood clots from forming on the back side of my heart valves, then breaking free and lodging in my brain. The risk is that it is not easy to reverse, and I run the risk of uncontrolled bleeding. It is like walking around with a bomb in your pocket.
Well—the bomb in my pocket blew up on Sept. 6th as I was leaving a Water and Sewer Authority meeting about 9 PM.
I fell, stepping off the sidewalk down to the parking lot. I landed on my butt back on the sidewalk. My lower right leg hit the curb when I went down. My fellow board members helped me up. I knew I was hurt but did not think it serious.
When I got home, I knew I wasn’t bleeding but not sure of anything else. I wear compression stockings and within minutes of taking them off my right lower leg swelled up to three times normal.
Quite out of character for me I called 911 (my wife was not home) and ended up in the ER of our local hospital.
I spent the night in the ER. I called my wife about 7 AM and she left to return home immediately.
The next thing I kind of remember (I was on some serious pain meds) was my wife arriving and a discussion between two surgeons and my wife and saying they would try to save my leg but not sure that it would be possible. I was unable to even object.
I woke up that afternoon in ICU---with my leg intact. I was to learn latter that I had lost a liter of blood which had pooled around the muscles in my leg. They also told me that all they had done was to open my leg up---closing it up would come in a second operation when I was stable enough to tolerate it.
Much of what was to happen over the next week is very foggy to me---I knew I was in trouble but unaware of the seriousness. I had a button in my hand that I could push when the pain got too bad---and I was doing a lot of pushing!
I had exceptional care---I can’t say enough for the angles that surrounded me! The immediate challenge was to stabilize my blood pressure. To that end, they gave me 4 ½ units of blood. That process, as simple as it might seem was interrupted by my vitals going out of control.
At one point my nurse called a “rapid response”---within minutes my room filled up with all kinds of doctors nurses and technicians—my wife counted 16!
They discussed what was going on and made immediate adjustments—even in my fog it was impressive.
It was during that time that I was given the last rights.
After 4 days of up and downs they took me back into the OR and preformed the second major surgery. They put ten drains and a catheter in the side of my leg, The incision runs from my ankle bone to just below my knee. The catheter ran the full length deep in my leg. They would periodically flush the catheter with 150 ml of saline solution---which was interesting as it turned my leg into a shower of sorts.
To move this along---I moved to the step-down unit from ICU where I would remain for the next 10 days. I spent the first two weeks flat on my back. I think it was day 15 when they got me on my feet—for about 30 seconds!
Fast forward, I left the hospital exactly 4 weeks after entering. By that point I could walk short distances on a walker and began trying to recover from weeks of inactivity.
I am now home and working hard on PT. Tomorrow I go for a follow up with my surgeon—who is fabulous. At this point I have been told that it will be 2 to 3 months until I can get back to work.
I am now on warfarin as a blood thinner (easier to reverse) but will have heart surgery in about 45 days to insert a Watchman, which in simple terms is a filter in my heart to catch any blood clots before they can do damage---and then I can stop the warfarin as well.
So----if you are on a blood thinner---beware! I hope this helps someone avoid the problem I have had.
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...Ben
Originally Posted by wacojoe
