Thais returned from Beverly Hills on Friday night and met up with her parents and Heath at the airport—the Pietrangelo's flew in to serve as marathon spectators extraordinaire (Jenny would arrive later that night).
Saturday, the crew headed to McCormick place with Sarah to partake in the running extravaganza that is the marathon expo. Mom even got to take a picture with Elvis! (promoting the Las Vegas marathon, of course)
It was upon leaving the expo, however, that Thais started to experience stomach pains that only got worse as the day progressed. By 10pm, she was on her way to ER. The diagnosis: an ovarian cyst. Not cancerous—thank God!—but painful nonetheless. Despite arriving home at 3am, Heath went on to run the marathon the next morning while Thais fell into a pain/Vicadin-induced sleep.
As you may have heard, the Chicago Marathon itself was a debacle! The extreme heat—88°!!!—and lack of water led to the cancellation of the race midday. Heath made it to mile 16 before being rerouted to the finish line. He and our friend Sarah did, however, get medals.
Meanwhile, Thais spent most of Sunday still in pain. As the Pietrangelo's prepared to leave on Monday morning, Heath and Jenny took her to Swedish Covenant for a day-long hospital visit that turned into emergency surgery. Long story short: The cyst was 8cm in diameter and had twisted around her left ovary, cutting off blood supply and causing the pain. They were able to remove the cyst laproscopically (through the belly button!) and despite the residual recovery pain, Thais was okay. The doctor, Dr. Patel, was a real lifesaver! If the surgery hadn't been performed that evening, Thais could have lost an ovary.
On a brighter note: Great views from Swedish Cov!
Heath and Jenny were troopers and a big thanks goes out to all the friends that came to visit and sent encouraging e-mails and flowers!
No comments:
Post a Comment