Blood Clots :-(

Steve has unfortunately been unwell since we have been home, his pain in the shoulder continued and Steve had 2 terrible nights, with little sleep and was in a lot of pain.
So much so we went to our GP and then back up to St Barts yesterday for Steve to have a CT scan on his lungs, as they thought or should I say Dr Hewitty thought he had another blood clot. (Hewitty is Steves nickname for me and so he has added Dr in front of it!!)


The hospital thought it was more likely to be joint swelling from the IL2 then a blood clot as Steve is on his daily injections which are meant to stop him getting blood clots. However this pain and Steves description of it are the same as when he had the blood clot in July.

So after a tiny bit of persuasion they agreed to give Steve a CT scan. Well 2 hours later the doctor informed us that it was in fact multiple blood clots in Steves lungs!

Dr Hewitty was right all along! So then we had to understand how they were going to treat it / them!!

Steve was adamant that he didn't want to stay in hospital and made those feelings plain to both the nurses and doctors! I totally understand why he feels like that, it isn't that they aren't good in St Barts but Steve doesn't want to be in hospital, when he doesn't really need to be. It is a ward of very sick people and think being confronted with this forces Steve to think about his own health.

But I feel like their is a fine line between making sure that I'm supporting Steves wishes but also making sure he is safe. Steve is very good at persuading the Nurses and Doctors that he will be fine but I make sure I speak up even if it means Steve gives me the look!

The doctor on duty called the blood specialists to ask their advice about the blood clots. The answer was that their were a number of options.

1) Steve to stay in hospital and have blood thinning medicine continuously put into him via a drip

2) Steve to have an operation to put a mesh / gauze type thing into Steves chest to catch the clots when they form, to stop them getting to his lungs

3) Change his injections to another type of drug

4) Take higher amount of the injections, to see if this will stop the clots.

Clearly options 1 and 2 involved Steve staying in hospital, so these were quickly ruled out by Steve!

And option 3 had a possibility of a hospital stay, so option 4 it was!

However this meant that Steve would need to have the increased dose, then wait 4 hours and have his blood taken again, so they could test the blood to see if the dose was the correct amount... Which meant having blood taken at midnight!

It was a very long and emotional day yesterday and a frightening one for all of us. Steve and I got home last night at about 2am. Simon came all the way to London at midnight last night to collect us, what a fantastic thing for him to do. Steve was blown away with this gesture and still cant believe what amazing friends he has but as I say everyone knows Steve would do the same if the roles were reversed and that is what friends are for.

Well we now have to wait for the results of the blood tests as they will take 48 hours to come back. Muriel is arriving tonight as everyone needs their Mum! And every Mum needs to be their for their son.

I am exhausted and both Steve and I are looking forward to being looked after by Muriel.

I will post when we have more news.