Remember Tony came to work a couple of weeks ago over here and we went for a curry on the Saturday? Tony is one of the fittest people I know, he's over 50 and is probably fitter than I am. So I was amazed to get to work this morning and find an e mail from him in my in box saying that when he had flown back, he had had a pain in his leg just under his knee, that he thought was a pulled muscle.
He didn't really think much of it, until he told his wife, who immediately told him to go and get it checked out at the doctors (its always the women that make us blokes go to the doc's isn't it?!)
Well, after a check up, blood test and scans, turns out he had DVT and the clot in his leg had moved from his knee and lodged in his left lung, making breathing quite difficult! He's on blood thinning medication and has to inject himself every day
DVT is a disease of the circulation. It occurs most often in people who have not been able to exercise normally, just like when you're on a long haul flight.
Blood passing through the deepest veins in the calf or thigh flows relatively slowly: when a DVT occurs it moves so slowly that it forms a solid clot which becomes wedged in the vein.
Quite often there are no symptoms at all, but Tony just thought he had pulled a muscle I found this out about DVT, just goes to show how unlucky you were Tony!
"The most common serious complication is a pulmonary embolism which occurs in between one in three and one in four cases of DVT. A piece of the clot lodged in the leg vein breaks off and travels through the body to the lung, where it becomes lodged again causing severe breathing difficulties."
But lucky enough to avoid these:
"Untreated, up to one in ten people who suffer a pulmonary embolism die as a result.
More rarely, a part of the clot may also lodge in other organs including the brain, where it leads to a stroke."
It made me wonder that if it had've been me, I probably wouldn't be here now - I haven't been to the doctors since I was 16 - Jeez thats 20 years this year! And if DVT can happen to Tony, they really can happen to anyone. Im off to buy some flight socks and some asprin for my return flight, anyone who flies long haul should take heed.
Well, just glad you're ok Tony, you'll live to eat another curry!
Monday, February 27, 2006
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9 comments:
Thanks for the writeup, but I think you missed the bit about sending me Bunches of grapes, lucozade etc. After all, this is the first time in my life I've been to the hospital and not been prescribed E45!
No clever remarks here, just to say get well soon and yes i do believe you probably are fitter than mark. lol.
oh while im here, didnt mark seem very knowledgeable on the subject?
amazing what copy and paste can do.
No Clever remarks Phil? no change there then :-)
i refuse to have an intellectual argument with an unarmed man
Yea Tony, what do them quacks know? I would have told u just to rub E45 cream on your lung, and not to bother me for another 20 years.
I think I'll have an 'MoT' (thats a car inspection thing for my international readers) when Im 40, cos that sounds like ages away
Im not rising to it Phil! Your spite and venom offends me not!
not rising eh.............me thinks we spoke about this in a previous post:)
Well, its a good job you read it then! Go and get some flight socks! I bet you can't wait for the trip now though?
Don't worry Michelle, it didn't hurt (much) :-)
As Mark says, get some good flight socks and make sure you drink loads of water like what I didn't.
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