FU to T&P

shainababygirl

Things have calmed a little. I'm not having to do any rush packing, which is great!

We KNOW we're going down tomorrow, but we don't know if we're going to the hospital or my inlaws house yet. The doctor said he might even be released tomorrow afternoon, as his vitals are great. 

He's had a blood clot in his leg before, and the doctor thinks that it's a heriditary thing. I'm actually sort of thankful it happened this way if it is heriditary. His brother passed away very suddenly 3 years ago, and they didn't do an autopsy. My FIL is like 48-49 and his brother was 53 at the time, so it's not like it was expected for either of them! Also, if it is heriditary, I want to get DH and DD tested ASAP.DH had a second cousin pass away a few weeks after giving birth very suddenly, and just last month his third cousin (the second cousins daughter) passed away while nursing her son in bed. Both from suspected blood clots. 

FIL's doctor says they caught them early, and that he's confident that FIL will be fine. He has enlarged lymph nodes, which SIL and MIL were freaking out about. He assured them that FIL probably has an underlying infection thats causing that, not cancer (like MIL and SIL thought). 

DH doesn't want DD at the hospital much at all, so we may be cruising a local mall while DH is there... but I don't want him going alone either. Hopefully FIL will be released in the morning and we can just go visit at the IL's! 

 Thanks for your support guys!

ncbelle

I just saw your other post - glad to hear that he's doing better and may be home soon.  Hang in there and we'll be thinking of you and your family!

Quazel

I am glad to hear things are looking positive.  We did the same thing with DS when my dad was in the hospital.  DH took DS to the mall a good portion of the time while I was with my dad.  Hopefully you can just go to their house. 

There is a test for hereditary blood clots?  Is it a gene test or a blood test or something?

shainababygirl

There's a test I think to just see if they have the clotting disorder. I don't know if there's a test to see if they're a carrier or not. But if FIL has Vector V, then DH and DD need to be tested to see if they have it. I know it's a three hour test, and that they draw blood and then mix it with snake venom (thats one test) to see how it clots. Weird but kind of cool, lol!

waterfly

shainababygirl:

There's a test I think to just see if they have the clotting disorder. I don't know if there's a test to see if they're a carrier or not. But if FIL has Vector V, then DH and DD need to be tested to see if they have it.

I'm guessing you're referring to Leiden Factor V?  If so...the bad news is that even a "carrier" can have it become active--even being heterozygous increases the risk of clotting, though not by a lot.  Being homozygous for FVL makes the risk a bit higher(since it means you've essentially got a double-dose of the gene), but again, typically not that big a deal.  My three siblings and I all have one form or another of FVL(one of my brothers is heterozygous, the other brother, my sister and I are all homozygous), and both my parents are at least heterozygous, to have produced that combination.  Of the six of us(and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins), I'm the only one known to have ever developed a clot, and that was after trauma(car accident+5 hours unconscious).  Because I am homozygous, we know that my daughter will at the very least be heterozygous...so it's something we'll know to keep an eye on in future.

Sorry for the long explanation, just wanting to give a bit of background for the reassurances.  It is excellent that they caught it in your FIL so quickly--I've had three DVTs(deep-vein clots) in my legs over the past 8-9 years, and the faster they're caught the easier they are to treat.  The main risk with clots like that is if it travels, it can go up to block blood flow to the heart, lungs, or brain--bed rest sucks, but it's often one of the best precautions during the initial treatment.  I would suspect that afterwards, particularly with the age factor, he will likely be kept on warfarin (coumadin) for life, to make sure it doesn't happen again, but it's mostly not that big a deal, once the danger of the actual clot is past.  It's annoying, because of the food restrictions, but it's not awful.

For your DH and DD, it's even less of a problem.  As long as it doesn't "activate," even if they have the disorder they likely won't have issues, just being aware that it's a possibility and knowing the signs to watch for(swelling, unexplained soreness, abnormally warm patches in extremities, shortness of breath, etc.) is a big help.  For your DD, I would definitely want to know, and make sure if she does have it that when she's older she knows to avoid other risk factors (hormone-based BC, smoking), and that when she has children of her own, chances are she'd be considered high-risk, and may need extra care to make sure she doesn't develop a clot during or after pregnancy.

 

ETA:  I just went back and read the original thread--Pulmonary Embolism is definitely more serious, and is what I was referring to with the "travelling" thing.  So glad he's being looked after!