Our son Matt has had a rough year. He has had his share of medical issues - and while none of them have been too serious - he's ready for some peace.
Last summer he worked at a local golf resort. While there he had a an accident with a greens whip - which is used to clear debris off the greens. He sliced his eye lid nearly all the way through - an ER visit with some scary times, lots of blood and then a trip to the opthalmalogous. Also last summer he had severe poison ivy and was so sick.
Then came the broken nose in the late Fall which required surgery. He had surgery six weeks ago. He had been through his post-op appointments and they were thrilled with how well he healed.
On Monday we received a call from his girlfriend...she put the university safety officer on who proceeded to tell us that Matt was bleeding profusely from his nose and the ambulance had been called. We jumped in the car and met him at the ER in Sunbury. We picked up his girlfriend on the way to the hospital - who was frantic because they wouldn't let her go along. She said the townhouse where he lives was covered in blood - his roommates said it looked like a crime scene.
We showed up in the ER to find him covered in blood - even his feet. He had been treated already - had his nose cauterized and packed. They didn't think it was related to his surgery - but from an over dry nose related to allergies and his use of Claritin. They checked his blood counts and sent him home. We took him back to school.
Tuesday my hubby headed to Pittsburgh for a business trip. I talked to Matt during the day and he said he was fine just really tired. At 11pm I had just fallen asleep when the phone rang - it was a friend of Matt's telling me that Matt was bleeding again, the EMT's were there and they were taking him again to the Sunbury ER. I got dressed and headed out again. It is a 75 min drive. On my way up the ER called me to tell me that he was ok but they couldn't get the bleeding to stop and they were sending him to a larger hospital with an ENT specialist on call. So I kept driving the additional 20 miles and actually got to Geisinger before the ambulance. This time I got to see the actual bleeding - which was an arterial bleed high in his nose - it was so scary when they took out the packing and the blood just gushed out with every pulse. He was scared and weak. The ENT cauterized the artery and sent us home. This time I drove home - scared it would restart on the desolate drive. But Matt slept the whole way home. We got home about 5 am and he fell right back to sleep.
I called his surgeon as soon as the office opened - I had also talked to his office the day before after the fist incident. They said they would talk to the surgeon and call me back. In the meantime my poor husband had left Pittsburgh super early and drove home - we had talked off and on all night but I had discouraged him from driving home in the middle of the night. He had gotten a few hours of sleep and drove the 3 1/2 hours home. He walked in the door about 10:30 am - just in time for Matt to be waking up and bleeding again. Thank God he was home because he was able to calm Matt down and handle the bleeding while I again called the dr. who told us to head to the Harrisburg ER. After a scary drive we ended up in the ER - third one in 2 days - who took him in right away. His bleeding slowed down and by the time the doctor saw him an hour later it had almost stopped. The ER dr. called the surgeon who wanted us to come to his office. They kept him in the ER for a little bit for observation to make sure it wasn't going to start up again. Then we headed to Hershey to the surgeon. They scoped his nose and cleaned up some large blood clots. His surgeon decided that it was related to the surgery and that he needed to go back in and do some deep cauterization. They scheduled it for Friday AM and as we waited for them to get us all the paperwork they kept Matt quiet and wanted to him stay for about an hour to make sure nothing changed.
Well he started bleeding heavily again so they decided to do surgery that day...we headed back to the Hospital where he had surgery in the early evening. He wasn't in surgery long but they think they have all the bleeding controlled. We came home late Weds night and Matt slept until noon on Thursday - only waking up long enough to get some liquids into him once in a while. So far so good - no bleeding.
He had a good day onThursday -spending the day on the couch and eating - lots. His blood counts are really low so he needs to eat lots of protein and is taking extra doses of a multi-vitamin with iron. He is tired and weak but feels pretty good despite his rough week.
When I brought him early Weds he only had the clothes on his back - all covered in blood, no shoes, no wallet or ID. He luckily had a few clothes at home - and one pair of grungy old sneakers. He is frantic that it is only 2 weeks before finals and he is missing nearly a week of classes. His school has been great....very helpful.
He'll be home with us until Sunday - and as long as all goes well we'll drive hime back up to school. It will be hard to leave him there. But for now we are keeping him close and are thankful for his amazing friends who kept their cool during these incidents and got him the help he needed.
