Thursday, February 10, 2011

He's home

Well, his INR number was up to 2.1 this morning so he came home! The girls and I are so excited. Life has been difficult the past week!

He has a long term prescription for coumadin (the blood thinner) and will start going to the Coumadin Clinic at Banner Baywood on Monday where they test his blood and adjust his dosage if necessary. We're not sure how often these visits will be, but we are assuming at first they will be frequent to make sure everything is fine. He will resume normal diet and activities, but will bruise easily and cuts will bleed more now that he's on the blood thinner.

He is also on a med for valley fever, even though the results have not come back positive (the first set was "indeterminate") but it will only last 2 weeks. His appt with the pulmonologist and hematologist will be coming up soon, and the pulm. will order a PET scan to check for cancer. He still has the clots (which will dissolve over time and we have been reassured will not "go" anywhere they shouldn't) and the docs will now try to figure out why he has them. This could be a range of a blood disorder to lung cancer to being related to his possibly having Marfan's syndrome, a genetic disorder he has been alerted to having symptoms of but hasn't been officially diagnosed since he would need genetic testing for that and our ins won't pay for it.

Anyway, that's the story, morning glory! Thanks everyone for your thoughts and concerns. This journey isn't over yet, but at least he is home with us. Love you all.

5 comments:

Lana and Terry said...

I'm so glad that Mark is home with his family! What an ordeal!! We will for sure continue to have you all in our prayers. Alisa, you take care so that baby won't come early!! Keep us posted! Thanks!

Jody Weiss said...

I'm so happy to hear that Mark is home! So sorry you guys have been having to go through that! We're thinking of you and have you all in our prayers!

Matt and Maggie said...

Those genetic tests sure are not cheap. Our daughter Gweneth had one when she went to the hospital for a seizure. Our insurance did cover it luckily since it otherwise would have been about $5000.

Matt and Maggie said...

These last few posts have been from Matt-except this one! Anyway, you have been in our prayers. You have witnessed many tender mercies indeed. :)

Bethany said...

Oh me oh my. You are a strong lady Alisa! And I need to check my blogs more often... I am so glad to read things are progressing... please call if you need anything!