Readmitted to the U last night...

Bob was readmitted to the U last night; wound site started bleeding yesterday morning during PT and he lost an incredible amount of blood in a very short time. . . many attempts made to control it, all day, to no avail. Continued bleeding all day, into the afternoon and evening. . .

As many may remember, this has happened several times in the past few months, but they've always been able to stop the bleeding, crisis averted. Wasn't happening yesterday. I left for a couple hours in the afternoon, to go feed the dogs and to pick up some sandwiches for dinner, and when I returned, Bob told me the doc on staff at Bethesda for the evening made the executive decision to send him to the U's ER, as his hemoglobin levels were dropping, INR numbers were quite high (this number represents the clotting ability of the blood), bleeding was not stopping. I like doctors who err on the side of caution in Bob's case. . .

Because Bob has been on even more blood thinners due to the clot in his leg, his blood is very thin and even a minor injury that results in bleeding can turn into a major event. Don't know why the wound site started bleeding—could have been as simple as being irritate during the CT scan yesterday, being in his back on a hard surface, could be that the new tissue, being so fragile, was irritated somehow during PT, who knows. We do know it doesn't take much to tip the scales.

So, we ended up in the ER last night, and six hours later, Bob was brought up to 7D, his ol' stompin' grounds. Even has one of his "old" nurses, who has been taking incredible care of him...

Overnight, he's become increasingly distressed, high heart rate, increased pain in his leg and pelvis, chills and nausea (though no fever), increased weakness...not sure if it's "just" (and I say "just" meaning not JUST "just," because nothing is ever just "just," if you know what I mean . . .) due to the blood loss, and that once that's addressed, things will calm down, or what . . .

A few teams of docs have already been in this a.m.—colorectal, cardiologists, a re-appearance by one of my least-fave docs at the U, Dr. Suave—but other than being on "observation status," not much happening. Bob's finally resting now, after a long, stressful, sleepless night, whiney roommate, here we go again . . . more updates later. . .