By Tuesday night, I drove myself to a small local hospital - that i was not familiar with- (because the two other hospitals - Los Robles & Ventura County Medical Center) were both packed and told me they could not help me. When I got to the hospital, they admitted me into the ER and took some blood and gave me an ultrasound. I was my usual cheery self - even as I was sitting on a gurney in the middle of the ER, because they had run out of rooms. As I laid on the ultrasound table, the cute lady was giving me my ultrasound and I was cracking jokes the entire time - she was in stitches! When she was finished, I asked her "Did you find something?" and she responded "I can't tell you." Moments later the doctor came to me and told me "You have a DVT, and if it spreads to your lungs it will kill you." I was a little freaked out, because DVT sounded scary and I didn't even know what it was. She quickly told me "Deep Vein Thrombosis - It's a blood clot deep in your leg!" I wasn't quite sure what to think, nor was I sure how I got it. But right away, they admitted me into the hospital and gave me a room. (While in the ER, I met two fabulous EMT students from Ventura College, who were very nice to me, asking questions about my cancer, why I was there, etc. It was nice to talk to people my age, while in the ER. I think it calmed me, because I was nervous about everything going on, while I was unsure of what was wrong with me. A transporter took me to a room and as I sat in the clean room waiting for the nurse to show up, I wondered if they'd ever give me some pain medication, for the severe pain I was having in my left leg. By the time I got to my room, it was midnight and shortly after my nurse came in. She seemed a little scatter brained, as she pulled a big cart with a computer on it into my room. She looked at me and said "I am here to ask you some questions, many questions - about 100." It took about an hour for the nurse to get through the 100 boring questions, and when she did, I asked again for pain medication - and she disappeared just as fast as she had come in. I was in the hospital (including time in the ER) for 7 hours before anyone gave me medicine for my severe leg pain. Ugh! I was thinking to myself, 'I can't wait to call Dr. P at the COH in the morning and ask him to get me out of this place.' After 2 days there, I was actually in fear of my life, because I noticed the lack of caring and information from the doctors and nurses at this particular hospital. I really thought that if Dr. P hadn't of gotten me transferred out of there, that I would die just from the hospital's neglect! :( Scary!!! The one good thing that happened, was when some friends of mine came to visit me, including Tami L who brought me flowers and snacks and Tam & her mom who brought my mom and I some great In and Out and some beautiful flowers! :) Good thing mom could visit with me often, since I was close enough.
On April Fools day- April 1st,2010 I was transferred by ambulance to The City of Hope. Now, you all know my obsession with bald men, and let me just say that I had another handsome bald man in the back of the ambulance with me, his name was Tom and he was super attentive, funny and really nice. Up front in the driver's seat was Kyle, another handsome EMT.
I remember laying in the back of the ambulance laughing it up with the guys and talking up a storm (once again- we see a pattern right?) I watched as my mom waved to me as I laid in the gurney in the fabulous ambulance. She was smiling, because she knew that I was on the right track. 
When I did get to the City of Hope, I was beyond relived to be there. I knew that things would be better, the moment I got there. The days at the City of Hope are a little blurred to me, because it was awhile ago. But the time was well spent. Not too many people came to visit me because it is a long drive to get there. But I ate some great food and enjoyed the time with friends who did visit from the hospital, like: Randy, Irene, Dr. Chen, Jeff, Heather & my phlebotomist friends. I learned that while on these blood thinners, I have to not eat as much food with Vitamin K in it, I don't have to limit it completely, I just had to limit it a bit and watch my intake. I learned that I would have to get my blood tested every day to make sure that my INR (International Normalized Ratio), which needs to be between 2.5 and 3.5 before they will let me go home, and once I do go home, they want my INR levels to be between 2.0 and 3.0, and will be changing my Coumadin (Warfarin) dosage often until I am at a regular target INR level.
While I was at each hospital, I was put on a regimen - I would get 140mg of Lovenox shots each day, which if I was lucky would be one shot, but most times it ended up being 2 shots (one shot of 100mg, and another with the remaining 40mg). Now, these shots were just as uncomfortable if not more than the shots that I had to give myself when I was on Neupogen 2 years ago (prior to my stem cell transplant), those were 3mg shots, and I gave myself the shots 3 times a day - not too bad!
I did have some fabulous visitors from CSUN that I met at a CSUN cancer survivor dinner that was put together by ACS and Colleges Against Cancer. They all came equip
with red streamers, a bag of playdoh, cookies, a book, puzzles and more! Zack, ended up decorating my room with Melodi & Amanda. My room was decked out with red streamers and the Relay for Life Logo was up on my bathroom door. Totally fun!!!
The nurses that I met at the City of Hope that week were beyond amazing and I loved moments with each and every one of them, even time with my doctors who visited and CNA's. :) Great time with great new friends, and old ones too!
Thanks to everyone for being awesome!!! I love ya all!!!! I was finally allowed home on 04/10/2010, I was sad because I had missed the Rise 2 Action conference that I was looking forward to attending in Texas, but was glad to be ok and back home! I had my buddy Jeff come and get me that beautiful Saturday morning. He was handsome and so hilarious - sporting my super cool cap and being a goofcall the entire time! Good thing I had my camera phone in hand to take some great pictures of him that really were priceless!!
But, I was finally back in my own bed, in my house and beyond ready to live life..... or something like it. I was put on some restrictions by my doctor - no far drives, no working of any kind (no stress), and to keep my leg up most of the time and walk a little bit, as tolerable - but not over doing it. I already had the weekend planned out, the next day- Sunday- my best bud Holly and I were attending the Gem & Jewelry show in Santa Monica, where she would push me around in my wheelchair. I was looking forward to it. Every moment, would be an adventure and always is........
