Called 911 last night. Edie was having lots of trouble breathing, couldn't eat, and was just not feeling good. She was thinking she was having a heart attack, but that turned out not to be the case.
Within a short time, the paramedics arrived (always an exciting experience for the neighbors), and discovered her oxygen levels were around 50%. They immediately administered oxygen, in addition to a few other things (which I'm not exactly sure of), and then transported her to the hospital, after pushing all the furniture around, and totally disrupting the house.
Anyways, without going into any more extraneous detail, which I could probably write a paragraph or two on, it was discovered she has a "string" clot in her leg, and they're going to install a filter between the artery/vein and the lung, to catch the clot before it gets to the lung, should it break off.
The doctors still aren't sure why her oxygen levels are so low, and drop very rapidly when the oxygen is removed, so she's not going anywhere for at least a little while.
At least they're keeping a close eye on her. She's in a step down unit from ICU, and she has a private room.
When I was first diagnosed with MCL, I pretty much read just about everything I could get my hands on, I attended various conferences, and I talked to anyone who would listen. One of the most important lessons I learned, and which I've mentioned numerous times before was No one cares more about you than you. But in addition to that, I learned to fear the drug Doxorubicin , AKA Adriamycin, Doxil, Hydroxydoxorubicin, or more affectionately the Red Devil. Besides being a deadly chemical, as is the case with most chemotherapy drugs, it is one of the few chemotherapy drugs known to cause permanent heart damage. I even heard Dr. Sandra Horning , a noted Stanford lymphoma specialist, state at the first lymphoma conference I attended in LA, there was no evidence Doxorubicin provided any added benefit to chemotherapy protocols. This was music to my ears, since Doxorubicin is very common in most lymphoma treatment protocols. And even though Dr. Horning has since changed her tune [which my sk...
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