Thursday

Upon arriving at the hospital, Beth was being prepped to go to the vascular scan. We went up there and I learned a thing or two about reading an ultrasound. Finally, those things somewhat make sense. The ultrasound came back negative indicating that there are no more clots. We saw again Dr. Miller, who had released us on Monday and with whom we were so pleased with. She talked through various issues with us including when the clots developed and how the clots are related to these symptoms. We also discussed what life will be like at least for the next 6 months and beyond. She did decide to go ahead and order a barium swallow test in order to find out what was going on with the esophagus. We found out later that we will have that test on Friday.

Some friends came and stayed with Beth, while I was able to get back home in order to shower, shave, and pack some bags for both of us for our stay. Upon returning, Beth continued to struggle with some tightness of heaviness in the chest. There were some intense moments in dealing with that pain. The important thing that the doctor reassured us was that her vitals remain strong. She has a solid heart beat and that there were no changes in her breathing. She does have a heart monitor on her, which is monitored somewhere on the 7th floor.

The lung doctor came to see us in order to see if there was anything he could bring to the table to diagnose this chest pain. He mentioned some kind of inflammation of the small joint which connects the rib to the cartilage of the sternum. He suggested to give her some morphine to attack that pain. He also said that the pain which Beth is having in her chest is unrelated to her blood clots in her lungs. He was able to inform us that the clots were in the lower left lung and reaffirmed that they were small and were low risk.

Dr. Miller and the nurses have been such a blessing to us here. Beth has never been through something such as this before and is learning to cope with the pain and the way her body reacts to the various medications that they give her. This has been very rough at times, especially because the unknown is scary and we don't know what is going on when the pain is severe.

We have had three roommates throughout today. The last was the roughest due to the company which she kept. Beth was not able to tolerate the language, the volume, and the tone with which they talked. Thankfully, the doctor and the nurse was able to pull some strings and got us into a very quiet room.

So, at 10:55pm here is where we are....Beth continues to have pain in her esophagus after she eats. She continues to have some sort of heaviness or chest tightness. Hopefully, tomorrow's test will bring some answers of some sort.