The Trouble With Clots

It turns out that the body is not meant to be sedentary. We are meant to dance and jump and run. Amacker is very still and the doctors are concerned about clots. Blood clots form in the legs and travel to the organs. They think that might be contributing to Amacker’s lung difficulties.

Normally they would give her blood thinners, but because of the light bleeding in and around her brain that’s not an option. Instead, tomorrow morning they are going to insert a thingymajiggy (not necessarily the exact term they used) in her vein that will catch the clots as they try to course through her body. I’m told it looks like an umbrella and acts as a filter. They’ll go in through the groin with a wire and up from there until they find the spot to place the device. Normally they would use a dye in the blood to make sure they’re headed in the right direction, but the dye is hard on the kidneys, and with only one that’s risky. Instead they’re going to just move carefully as they navigate up, and use ultrasound and other visualization technology to figure out where to go left and where to go right. I still think Google Maps is super-technology, so I can only imagine how these folks do it. In the mean time they are going to do some ultrasounds of her legs tonight to look for clots that may have already started to form.

Amacker’s lungs remain a concern. They’ve increased the amount of oxygen she’s getting. They fear she might have A.R.D.S. I’ll leave it to the geniuses over at Wikipedia to help you understand what that means.

One other note, Amacker is really only moving her right side. The neurosurgeon is ever-so-slightly concerned about that, but quickly points out that both her left arm and left leg are broken. Further, the left arm might have suffered some nerve damage as it over-extended with the clean break. If we don't see movement soon I'll poke my finger in her leg wound and see if she jumps. Sticking a finger in an open wound is what little brothers do best.