Darrell’s journey with his leg began Labor Day weekend of 2006. His main artery in his left leg from the groin to his ankle was completely blocked off with a blood clot. The Dr. on call that weekend was Dr. Kreps who did an amazing job saving Darrell’s leg in an emergency surgery situation. First trying to pull veins from Darrell’s right leg to replace the artery… only to discover those veins were not in good enough shape. He ended up putting in an artificial graft in place of the clogged artery. For about a year Darrell’s leg was good, with some new challenges, such as “drop foot”, nerve damage and numbness. He had to learn to walk and get around a bit differently than ever before. In 2007, the artery became clogged again and Darrell went back into emergency surgery with Dr, Kreps. As you could imagine, these surgeries are marathon long! Dr. Kreps, again saved Darrell’s leg by replacing the graft. This graft was a new version they had come out with that was infused with heparin. This proved to be excellent for Darrell and has outlasted most of its kind. Fast forward to right before Christmas, December of 2020… Darrell’s first episode since 2007, his graft clogged from his groin to his ankle. Severe pain and a very scary time. Dr. Kreps retired and Darrell’s Dr. is now Dr. Kissell, who used to assist in surgeries and work with Dr. Kreps. Darrell is no longer a good candidate for surgery, so basically the only option is to try the TPA treatment. If the TPA doesn’t work, amputation is the only other option. The TPA treatment is where they insert a catheter into the groin and put this powerful drug into the graft to bust up the blood clot. This procedure is a bit dangerous because it can cause severe bleeding and is only done in the ICU. Short story and much trauma and discomfort, Darrell’s leg was again saved. This leads us to the next … His Journal starting in June of 2021 and his lengthy hospital/rehab combo stay of 41 days… And updates as we take this journey day by day.
Additional note added, November 2022: Another side of Darrell’s health issues is his lungs. He started smoking cigarettes as a teenager and in 1982 is when he initially began having issues with blood clots in his legs, ultimately the cause was from smoking and other lifestyle choices. He stopped smoking in 2007 and sometime shortly after he was diagnosed with COPD. Upon that diagnosis, he initially was supposed to wear oxygen, but refused for many years. It wasn’t until June of 2021 when he was hospitalized for the clot in his leg that he began wearing oxygen full time. He fought wearing it up until then. By this time his COPD had worsened and then being diagnosed with having emphysema and shortly after in 2021 they discovered the Pulmonary Fibrosis. His need for oxygen was very great and he needs a high flow every day. His oxygen concentrator is set at 8 Liters on a good day. With a bottle of pure oxygen, sometimes he can use as little as 5 Liters, but the normal is usually 6 liters. With how sick his lungs are, any type of movement requires his oxygen to be turned up or his oxygen levels will drop very low. He is unable to walk very far because he can’t sustain any breath. Walking 30 feet is extremely hard. Any walking he does in his home now requires his seated walker where he can sit and rest as needed. He no longer can walk out in the community and even getting to his car to go to appointments requires his electric wheelchair.
