The Clot, Hormones, and the Line

Mom's oncologist came in about an hour ago to give us the results from the scan and the next steps.

The CT scan showed that the main clot is in Mom's arm. A few very small clots did travel into her lungs. The stomach injections (an anticoagulant) don't necessarily help the blood to go back to normal (our bodies will dissolve these with some time), but they prevent new clots from forming. He expects the clots in her lungs will 'dissolve' within a month, but the one in her arm may take several months.

The clot(s) formed from a combination of cancer, the central line, and Mom's hormone replacement.

The plan is to release Mom today after having taught us how to give her the daily injections. We'll continue these injections even after the chemo treatments are completed. Because the injections are pretty expensive, the oncologist wants to wean Mom to a pill form. It's just more difficult to regulate the dosage that way, so they have to do even more blood work. The pill form of the anticoagulant also has some dietary limitations, so we're just going to take this one step at a time. The doctor also wants to wean Mom off of the hormone replacement completely...but that will be way later. He doesn't want to add to what we're already dealing with as it relates to the clot and chemo side effects. He said that since we can see that she may be predisposed to clots, it'd be best for her to try to get off the hormones, but that, again, in time.

A little more a little later.

Oh, and another nurse from one of Mom's prior hospital stays recognized us today. Most nurses here stay on their floors (the in-patient room floors are categorized by type of cancer or cancer location in the body) I think so that they can somewhat specialize in that type of cancer. Anyway, this nurse is kind of a mobile nurse and goes from floor to floor. Well, she had been our nurse before and even remembered my mom's condition from that hospitalization. Are we really such big pains? I think not. It must be Mom's strength and humble personality that make her truly unforgettable...in every way.