Another Bleed!

Hi Everybody!

Well, I had been doing pretty well lately, but I could feel I was starting to get sick - like getting congested. My voice was going and I knew I would start having some problems soon. So this morning right after I got to work - I felt this incredible need to hack - had some phlegm to get rid of! Yuck, I know! Soon as I did that, I mean the blood let loose from my wound area! In just seconds, my polo shirt was covered in blood, it was filling up the wound area and down my arm! I immediately grabbed some napkins in my desk and grabbed my wound care bag and headed down the hall to the bathroom. No time to tell anyone where I worked, I knew I left blood on the floor and doorknob leaving the area where I work! On my way to the bathroom, I ran into Mr. Rivera - one of the County workers that is also one of my best friends Dad! I told him I was in a rush to the bathroom as I was having a bleed. He called out for me to be careful! I was able to get the bleeding under control and went back to my work area. Ran into several co-workers that asked if I was ok or needed any help! Managed to get the blood off the floor and off the doorknob. Luckily, my co-worker and friend Diana was available to help me out! She's already experienced several of my bleeds and is familiar w/my situation! She followed me back to the bathroom to help me re-dress the wound area, but not before I had gone to show my supervisor Mr. Rios what had happened. Once he saw the front of my shirt full of blood, he of course understood I needed to get that under control.
I have to say the Diana was wearing a pretty yellow jacket and print skirt and she managed to not get any blood on her when she was helping me! Whew! I was glad for that! Unfortunately, later in the morning, while she was talking to a co-worker, he made her laugh as she was drinking her coffee, so she spilled some of that on her dress! Darn! Oh well - better coffee than blood, huh?

Once Diana and I got the area redressed, I went ahead and called my primary care physicians office to work me in, as I knew I would be needing to get my congestion under control! I can't afford to be hacking and bleeding from my wound are from the force of the cough! Mark ended up being able to go with me - he wanted to show the doctor the wound area, as we are hoping to be able to get me some Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment. "The treatment delivers 100% oxygen, which is roughly 5 times the amount that a normal person recieves from just breathing air. And because it is done under pressure at 2.4 ATA, I end up with 12 times the concentration of oxygen in my blood. Because my AVM was "stealing" the regular blood flow from going to the wound and delivering the oxygen needing for healing, the wound had no chance of getting better. With the increase in oxygen level due to HBOT, and better blood flow due to recent embo's, I really feel like the affected tissue is finally getting some much needed oxygen and that the healing process is underway." The past few sentences were taken from Shalons website to describe how she got Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment. My doctor is looking into it for me as my needing a second opinion and working on getting a referral for my insurance for it. We'll see what happens - we're hoping I can have this done and get this wound area closed already!

Mark got compliments from the doctors staff on his wound care therapy! They told him they hoped he was getting paid well for it! "Oh yeah"! Mark said, "I get paid with kisses"!

Meanwhile, lets all take a moment to wish my father-in-law George Schuman a Happy Birthday today! He turns 76! I have a lot of family and friends on from the Schuman camp praying for me as well!

It's pretty much time to call it a day! Still have to iron my clothes for work tomorrow and I just want to wash my face and go to bed! May all of you be doing well these days! We'll be in touch!

Love,

Mark & Cyndi