Blood clot / Embolism

Page 1 of 1 [ 12 posts ]

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.

31 May 2016, 12:33 pm

Got myself one of those two months ago in the hip. Legs started to feel like they were made out of cement, it felt like i had to "drag" the legs to walk. Day two, it felt like normal, but one leg was swollen. Talked to Nurse over the phone and she advised me to visit the local medical center, i did and they rushed me to the hospital in a cab. Got a cool view of the ultrasound as the doctor poked around in the leg and we found it immediately in the hip.

Ended up taking daily injections (dislike syringes and couldn't do it, so i paid my sister to do it), after a week i got pills instead (Eliquis) that i should eat for 6 months, i read a few less good stories about it on the internet that a few people had, but i've had zero side effects except for the occasional random small bleeding (its a bloodthinner).

Doctor said i could get a second clot within 2 years, i also changed my diet to a much more healthy one (without the doctor even suggesting it.), and i've lost ALOT of weight. Sure, i cheat with the occasional pizza, but sugar based softdrinks (Cherry Coke) is replaced with Cocacola Zero. Zero was an "aquired taste", but now it's all good.

Before this, i drank 6 x 33cl Cherry Coke a day and had a lifestyle that was somewhere between healthy and bad, i do not smoke or drink (often) so my foodbudget was like the CIA's black budget - unlimited. It still is, but now i think twice about what i eat if i want to make it to retirement. At least i didn't get Diabetes like some of my friends have... this i can recover from.

Anyone else had a bloodclot? How did it turn out for you? Are you still eating medicine? (talked to a relative who had to do that years after).

_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)

kraftiekortie
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 4 Feb 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 87,510
Location: Queens, NYC

01 Jun 2016, 6:50 am

I'm fortunate that I've never had a blood clot.

I'm 55 years old; I hope my time isn't coming LOL

pezar
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 5 Apr 2008
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,432

01 Jun 2016, 11:57 am

Blood clots are no joke. There are lots of stories out there of people keeling over dead from a clot. One woman decided to drive home-from Utah to California, about 1000 miles-to surprise her family for Christmas. She drove ten hours straight, only stopping for gas, then her car went off the freeway about 10 miles from her destination. She had dropped dead from a clot. My own grandmother dropped dead from a clot. You MUST take this seriously.

Ichinin
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.

01 Jun 2016, 1:21 pm

pezar wrote:

You MUST take this seriously.

I am. Also taking it as an opportunity to change my diet to a more serious one that does not involve red meat or copious amounts of sugar based softdrinks.

Speaking about keeling over, when i was in the emergency room, there was this guy who have had a swollen arm for 2 weeks and that wasn't enough of a signal for him to visit the emergency (Free healthcare over here so he really didn't have a reason, except "i didn't think it was serious", and he was an obvious alcoholic who seemed to not care much).

Anyway, i have few of the risk factors in my life, and now even one less since i'm losing weight (college said i had probably lost like 10 kilos/20 pounds), only remaining riskfactor is that i work with IT and i sit on my butt all day, both at work and home. Going to see what i can do about that...

_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)

Ichinin
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.

01 Jun 2016, 1:23 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:

I'm fortunate that I've never had a blood clot.

I'm 55 years old; I hope my time isn't coming LOL

Well, maby you're not in the riskzone? Bad food (lots of red meat), smoking, not moving, obesity are major contributors to clots.

There are also people with a genetic predisposition to develop clots and they can also appear as a side effect after an operation, even if you are healthy. You can never be 100% safe.

_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)

ZenDen
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 10 Jul 2013
Age: 82
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,730
Location: On top of the world

23 Jun 2016, 11:59 am

I take Warfrin every day as a preventative measure & get tested for "blood thinness" about once a month.

"Don' need no stinking embolism."

Ichinin
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.

24 Jun 2016, 3:05 am

ZenDen wrote:

I take Warfrin every day as a preventative measure & get tested for "blood thinness" about once a month.

"Don' need no stinking embolism."

So did my father during his last years (not warfarin though), still he got a stroke or two but since mom was around she got him to hospital quickly. When we saw him after he died we noticed that his face was askew so we suspected that he died silently of a stroke, he just went to bed and didn't make a sound. Same day he died, he did say that he felt that something felt wrong according to mom, but he was the type that didn't want to bother the hospital - even with free healthcare.

Anyway, as i mentioned above, sitting still and having bad habits is a big contributor to clots/embolisms. Since i stopped with sugar based candy/soda i've lost 7 kilos (~15 pounds) without doing anything else, it is especially important in the later years to not eat too much crap. (Not just writing it for you that probably knows this, but to other readers as well)

_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)

richie
Supporting Member

Joined: 9 Jan 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 30,142
Location: Lake Whoop-Dee-Doo, Pennsylvania

25 Jun 2016, 1:11 pm

Five years I had a very large clot in my left leg and a pulmonary embolism. I had to take Coumadin (Warfarin)
and get weekly blood tests for a little over a year. Then last September I had a mild heart attack and had to have a stent inserted into one of my coronary arteries.

_________________
Life! Liberty!...and Perseveration!!.....
Weiner's Law of Libraries: There are no answers, only cross references.....
My Blog: http://richiesroom.wordpress.com/

beakybird
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 25 Dec 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,789
Location: nj

25 Jun 2016, 10:42 pm

My best friend was twice hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism. They aren't completely sure why but they said it may be genetic. He's currently on Warfarin I believe also. Idiot still smokes too. :roll:

Ichinin
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.

26 Jun 2016, 2:44 am

richie wrote:

Yes, from what the doctor said, clots can work their way into lungs. Then it becomes immediately serious: i was told that if i felt massively tired, had chestpain and respiratory problems i should go to the emergency room immediately. Stents are very serious, father had 4 of those inserted the week before he died.

beakybird wrote:

Well, smoking is poisonous but it also decrease blood pressure so even though you think its bad, it actually mitigate some of the problems while killing you in other ways. If the doctors cannot find any other explanation to a clot (like riskfactors), it could be genetic like Hypercoagulation.

_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)

Chronos
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 22 Apr 2010
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,698

08 Jul 2016, 5:53 am

Ichinin wrote:

Do you have a clotting disorder that makes you prone to these?

Ichinin
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.

08 Jul 2016, 7:10 am

Chronos wrote:

Do you have a clotting disorder that makes you prone to these?

Nope, just unhealthy living so it's my own fault. I've lost a lot of weight because of my diet change and i haven't felt anything "wander" in my body for a while.

I'm still on blood thinners though (Eliquis), got an appointment to the hospital ASAP to check blood values because of those (since they forgot to do that, it's vacation time). Gonna do that on monday since it is too late today (Friday).

_________________
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)

Page 1 of 1 [ 12 posts ]

Jump to:

Blood clot / Embolism Post Reply New Topic

Blood clot / Embolism