Blood and snuggle parties

It’s been several hours and five days since Tim texted me with the news that his doctors found a very large blood clot in his leg – the same leg that was shattered earlier this summer and required major surgery.

We knew this was a post-surgery risk, and he took all the usual precautions: elevating his leg, walking around frequently, doing heel-toe stretches, etc.  We’re so surprised he developed a clot at all because he has a tendency to bruise very easily; in fact, we thought he might have a clotting-deficiency disorder. 

And now this.

Deep vein thrombosis is scary.   If a part of the clot breaks off and travels to his lungs, it could be fatal.  My sister-in-law Jill lost her best friend earlier this year to a pulmonary embolism.  The statistics are in our favor (especially now that he’s being treated with blood thinners), but I am still terrified.  Like, I can’t sleep.   I can’t really write about it without my chest tightening and feeling like I’m going to choke.

I need my Tim.  There is nothing like a crisis to make you appreciate the mundane.  Tonight at dinner I  felt like I just never wanted to stop eating potato and leek soup together.

Here are Tim’s legs – one is quite swollen due to the clot preventing optimal venous return:

Tim thinks the swelling has actually gone down, so hopefully he is on the mend.   Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and calls and texts – they mean so much.

In the meantime, I’m trying to take things one moment at a time.   Luckily, there are a lot of good moments, like spontaneous snuggle / tickle-fight parties.