My Sister

I have a younger sister. I've written about her before. Her name is Vee, which is short for Veruca.

Okay, not really about that last part.

Vee is a gifted pianist and is studying music at a state university several hours away from the rest of our family. Several weeks ago she started having some pain in her left foot; after a while the pain traveled up her calf. Since she is a "starving student" with very basic (read: limited) health insurance, she waited to be seen by a doctor. Then her foot and leg began to swell. Finally last Wednesday she went to the clinic where a doctor suspected a blood clot and sent her for an x-ray. The x-ray showed a clot extending the entire length of her left leg. Because she'd been experiencing shortness of breath they sent her for a CT scan which revealed many particles of the clot in both lungs. She was admitted to the hospital and started on blood thinners.

Let me tell you something: it is scary when your little sister is in the hospital with a massive blood clot. Very, very, extremely scary. We started praying hard, and asking others to pray.

Vee was kept overnight and released the next day with prescriptions for two different types of blood thinners. She was given permission to return to school as long as she takes it easy and keeps her leg elevated as much as possible. She has to go to the clinic every day for bloodwork until the medication level reaches where it's supposed to be; then she can stop one of the meds. She'll be on the other med for a minimum of a few months.

She's not out of the woods yet. It's going to take a while for all of the blood clots to clear up. Her lungs are working harder because of the clots in them, which makes her very tired. Thankfully she only has a few weeks of school left.

I'm so grateful for God's mercy and grace! So many people were praying for her -- I truly believe in the power of prayer. I'm asking for your continued prayers for her, that the medication will do its job to dissolve the clots, that she will see improvement every day, and that she'll be able to get through these next several weeks of classes.

And ... tell your loved ones that you love them.