She One-Up'd Me!

My sister and I have always been best friends. Well....maybe not when we were very little because then we fought like cats and dogs.... we were the poster children for sibling rivalry! When we were in high school we became very close and when my parents moved away after we both graduated we shared an apartment and were roommates until my sister got married in 1996.

Fast foward 10 years...

I found out I was pregnant with my boys in June of 2006. On 12/23/06 I developed severe swelling in my left leg and went to the hospital where they found that I had a DVT or blood clot in my leg. I spent the 23rd, Christmas Eve, and most of Christmas Day in the hospital on blood thinners to avoid the clot breaking loose which could have resulted in a Pulmonary Embolism. I was on twice daily injecitons of blood thinners from Christmas until the boys were born on 1/23/07 and then continued the injections for 6 months after delivery which is standard protocol when a person develops a clot. Along the way I was diagnosed with several blood disorders that predispose me to developing clots. Swell. So no more BC pill for me, I have to be careful on long plane or car rides, and if I become pregnant again, I'll have to be on blood thinners to prevent clots....possibly for the rest of my life.

Now back to my sister one-uping me!....Again with the sibling rivalry!

When I delivered the boys via c-section, being on blood thinners posed a problem that came to fruition a few days after the boys were born. After my c-section I experienced internal bleeding and lost more than half my blood volume into my abdomen. (Class IV Hemorrhage involves loss of >40% of circulating blood volume. The limit of the body's compensation is reached and aggressive resuscitation is required to prevent death.) I was in terrible pain and my internal organs were irritated from the blood and had started to shut down. I had surgery again to remove all the blood, repair the leaks, and had a blood transfusion. ALLLL BETTER! PHEW!!

When I found out about my blood disorders, I told my sister to get tested for the same things since she was taking BC pills which could be bad. She was tested and did not have the same disorders that I did. Phew!! When my sister became pregnant, I believe she discussed my situation with her doctor and might have been tested again, but no blood disorder so no worries. My sister had her baby girl this past Saturday via c-section. My Mom flew up on Monday morning to spend 10 days with my sister and my new niece. On Monday night my sister was released from the hospital and went home to start her happy new life. Tuesday she was experiencing some swelling in her legs but Wednesday it got worse and she was having chest pain and difficulty breathing. My Mom knew the signs of blood clots since she'd seen them before in me and told my sister to call her doctor. She did and was advised to go to the ER. After lots of tests she was finally diagnosed with TWO CLOTS that had already traveled to her lungs....a Pulmonary Embolism. She spent last night in the hospital, and probably a few more nights to get therapeutic, and she will have to be on blood thinners like I was for at least 6 months. I talked to her last night on the phone and she sounded really good.

I told her, "So you're trying to one-up me with two clots to my one huh?"

She laughed and said, "Yep, I guess so!"

I love, love, love my sister and wish her a speedy recovery and hope that she gets home soon so that she can start her happy new life.....AGAIN!!