Seroma (Wed, 23 Jun, 3pm)

Well, class, are we ready for the next lesson in medical terminology? Mom has a seroma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seroma

We went into town to the Cardiac Clinic to have Glenda do a Protime. The Protime device at the Cardiac Clinic is exactly the same one that mom has at home. We brought mom's device with us and Glenda set them up side by side, then pricked mom's finger and put the same drop of blood in both devices. Glenda's device gave a reading of 1.7 and mom's gave a reading of 1.8, apparently an insignificant difference. The point is that her Coumadin level is still too low, and mom has to stay on the Lovenox injections for another day. She was kind of hoping that her Protime device was malfunctioning, but then she laughed and said that it was her body that's malfunctioning!

While Glenda was working, I took the opportunity to ask one of mom's questions, which was whether she can start using her left arm yet. Glenda had mom pull her shirt aside and promptly said, "You have a seroma." It's an accumulation of old stale fluid at the pacemaker site, and that is what is causing the thing to protrude like a hard-boiled egg. Glenda told mom to not use her arm till the seroma subsides, and to not remove the steri-strips across the incision for now, and to start putting a heating pad on the site three times a day to increase the circulation in an effort to flush the stuff away from the site. Glenda said that when it's gone, we will still probably be able to see the outline of the pacemaker because mom has no fat, but it won't be anywhere near as large as it is right now. A couple days ago when I measured it, it stuck out 1-1/8" from her chest wall. Mom was kind of disappointed to not be able to go back to using her arm, but the really good thing is that aside from that, everything looks great. Glenda took her blood pressure, and hooked her up to some monitor to download the data from the pacemaker, and everything looks really good. Mom is feeling good, too. Since she halved her dosage of Toprol three days ago, her only complaint is that it's a nuisance to not be able to use her left arm. Considering the last two months, I'll definitely settle for the nuisance!