Saturday, February 7, 2009

When the problem is not THE problem

It's 1:00 am and I just got back from the new hospital in Murray. Was up there to see my youngest brother and his wife (just married this fall) whose day started with going in for a CT scan to try and pin down the cause of some recent swelling in her neck and chest. She get's scanned, they head home, optimistic about getting the call later and finding out what the issue is and getting it fixed. Right about when they got home is when the day started to change. They get the call asking them to turn around and come back in.

General assumption is that that's not a positive.

They get back and are told Superior Vena Cava Syndrome is the culprit for the swelling and chest discomfort. Call goes out to family, we all start digging around to find out what it is, etc.... My brother and his wife are sent down to the hospital in Murray and admitted for the weekend so she can get a few more tests and the biopsy.

You'll probably google SVCS after reading this, but I'll give you a readers digest version. While this SVCS thing is the problem that caused the swelling, etc..., it's actually just a symptom of the real problem, and there's a decent chance that this gets real hard for this little family in the next couple of days.

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