A big thank you to Colin J!

[slowmotion]

Well done Colin.

 

[MartinQ]

I share your pain @ColinJ I have had both a PE and a DVT. Am now on thinners for life. Indebted to our much maligned NHS for diagnosing and treating the PE efficiently.

@Pat "5mph" yours friends travel insurance will now go up in large increments!!

post office were good for travel insurance with me (with recurrent clots). Was about normal price.

 

[Drago]

Oh - I haven't actually travelled abroad since getting ill. I hadn't considered that issue!

That's something I have to think about for Mrs D. I wouldn't want to be in the remote backward country of West Armpit enjoying a package holiday at a gated resort and have Mrs D fall Ill. In recent years I feel disinclined to do so anyway, and with the current focus on air travel and climactic damage that's probably the end of me flying now.

 

[Twinks]

When my daughter was 27 she had a PE. The only thing she noticed before she collapsed on the floor of her kitchen, when alone with her pre school toddler, was a tiny lump in her groin which she thought she might get looked at . Fortunately her little boy ran outside into the garden and screamed to the neighbour "my mummy's having a baby" !! She was rushed to hospital and immediately put on clot busting drugs and kept in to be monitored. The following day she went into cardiac arrest. She was without a blood pressure for 40 mins and I was actually asked if I wanted to see her while she was still warm. I was still hysterical when the ward sister literally dragged a passing heart consultant in off the corridor and he performed a procedure where he inserted a catheter into the artery in her neck and pushed the clot into a chamber of her heart where it could do no more harm. She then spent 24 hrs on ICU while we waited not knowing if she would awaken or be brain damaged or what to expect. 24hrs later the nurse came rushing to the family room and said she's shouting for her mum. They removed the ventilator tubes etc and her first words were "I'm starving". she had no idea what had happened and still has no memory of it. She has no lasting damage and is regarded as something of a miracle by those involved in treating her. She had blood thinning drugs for a while but now only has heparin injections before long flights as a precaution. She's now 46. I don't blame @ColinJ for "banging on" about his DVT experience, no one expects it to happen so the more aware people are the better. All the best to your friend @Pat "5mph" and well done to you.

 

[ColinJ]

When my daughter was 27 she had a PE. The only thing she noticed before she collapsed on the floor of her kitchen, when alone with her pre school toddler, was a tiny lump in her groin which she thought she might get looked at . Fortunately her little boy ran outside into the garden and screamed to the neighbour "my mummy's having a baby" !! She was rushed to hospital and immediately put on clot busting drugs and kept in to be monitored. The following day she went into cardiac arrest. She was without a blood pressure for 40 mins and I was actually asked if I wanted to see her while she was still warm. I was still hysterical when the ward sister literally dragged a passing heart consultant in off the corridor and he performed a procedure where he inserted a catheter into the artery in her neck and pushed the clot into a chamber of her heart where it could do no more harm. She then spent 24 hrs on ICU while we waited not knowing if she would awaken or be brain damaged or what to expect. 24hrs later the nurse came rushing to the family room and said she's shouting for her mum. They removed the ventilator tubes etc and her first words were "I'm starving". she had no idea what had happened and still has no memory of it. She has no lasting damage and is regarded as something of a miracle by those involved in treating her. She had blood thinning drugs for a while but now only has heparin injections before long flights as a precaution. She's now 46. I don't blame @ColinJ for "banging on" about his DVT experience, no one expects it to happen so the more aware people are the better. All the best to your friend @Pat "5mph" and well done to you.

Blimey, your daughter was lucky to survive that without serious long term consequences!

Another reason that I bang on about the subject is that my own mother had a DVT but my parents never told me in so many words. My dad used to tell me not to sit down with my legs crossed for long periods of time but didn't explain why! When I was in hospital my older sister said "Oh, mum had a DVT when you were a baby" If I had known the risks then I would have avoided the things that led to the problem. (Though genes and height are risk factors I could NOT do anything about.)

Once this thread has died down I promise to go quiet on DVT for a while but will always give a warning if I see a post with someone showing the symptoms!

 

[MartinQ]

When my daughter was 27 she had a PE. The only thing she noticed before she collapsed on the floor of her kitchen, when alone with her pre school toddler, was a tiny lump in her groin which she thought she might get looked at . Fortunately her little boy ran outside into the garden and screamed to the neighbour "my mummy's having a baby" !! She was rushed to hospital and immediately put on clot busting drugs and kept in to be monitored. The following day she went into cardiac arrest. She was without a blood pressure for 40 mins and I was actually asked if I wanted to see her while she was still warm. I was still hysterical when the ward sister literally dragged a passing heart consultant in off the corridor and he performed a procedure where he inserted a catheter into the artery in her neck and pushed the clot into a chamber of her heart where it could do no more harm. She then spent 24 hrs on ICU while we waited not knowing if she would awaken or be brain damaged or what to expect. 24hrs later the nurse came rushing to the family room and said she's shouting for her mum. They removed the ventilator tubes etc and her first words were "I'm starving". she had no idea what had happened and still has no memory of it. She has no lasting damage and is regarded as something of a miracle by those involved in treating her. She had blood thinning drugs for a while but now only has heparin injections before long flights as a precaution. She's now 46. I don't blame @ColinJ for "banging on" about his DVT experience, no one expects it to happen so the more aware people are the better. All the best to your friend @Pat "5mph" and well done to you.

Sounds like she was very "lucky", in her recovery obviously.
It is a weird illness. To rip off Warhol, most people have their 15 minutes of panicking then its fairly boring and most make a full recovery. One minor advantage is if you have to go to A&E with some problem resembling a recurrence is that you get treated like a gold card customer and taken to the front of the queue, probably much to the annoyance of the other poor souls waiting.

 

[ColinJ]

It is a weird illness. To rip off Warhol, most people have their 15 minutes of panicking then its fairly boring and most make a full recovery.

That is true for DVT but once it progresses to PE, it definitely isn't!

Here's some data from the results of this study covering 14,629 patient-years:

The overall 1-day survival after venous thromboembolism was 77.7%, but 1-day survival for patients with deep vein thrombosis alone was 97.0% compared with 63.6% for those with pulmonary embolism. Overall 7-day survival was 74.8%; however, 96.2% of those with deep vein thrombosis were still alive at 7 days compared with only 59.1% of those with pulmonary embolism.

4/10 of PE sufferers die within a week!

 

[Pat "5mph"]

Thank you @Twinks and of course @ColinJ for your input.
My friend and I are quite lax about our health, in fact we usually ignore stuff that most people rush to the docs for
Was it not for Colin posting about it, I would not have known a thing about DVT nor indeed PE.
My friend was going to ignore her painful leg for another while, because her work (when she needs her legs!) is seasonal and she's off at the moment.
Like me, she lives alone, we are now keeping an eye on her DVT together, ready to rush to hospital in case the lump moves up
She is reporting today that, on her third day of blood thinners, the obstruction feels not as hard, walking is less painful.
Thanks again all for sharing your experience, I will tell her that she has to declare her condition to the travel insurance company, she travels a few times a year.

 

[ColinJ]

I would want reassuring about why 6 weeks of treatment was considered long enough when the NICE guidelines suggest a minimum of 3 months!

How should I follow up a person with confirmed deep vein thrombosis?

• Provided there are no contraindications (such as pregnancy or cancer), people who have been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) will require maintenance treatment with an oral anticoagulant drug (warfarin or rivaroxaban) following acute treatment.
  • Ensure adequate monitoring — see the CKS topic on Anticoagulation - oral.
    • Specialists will make clinical decisions such as the choice of anticoagulant and the duration of treatment.
    • Treatment is usually continued for at least 3 months, but duration may be longer depending on whether the DVT was unprovoked (no obvious, transient risk factor identified) or provoked (caused by an identifiable, transient, major risk factor).

 

[PK99]

@Pat "5mph" yours friends travel insurance will now go up in large increments!!

Mine hasn't. I'm on daily rivroxaban fo life, insurer noted this and confirmed cover.

 

[ColinJ]

@Pat "5mph" - how is your pal getting on now?

 

[Pat "5mph"]

@Pat "5mph" - how is your pal getting on now?

Hi Colin!
She's much better, thank you for asking.
The clot is gone, the swelling/pain are almost gone, she can walk again.
Her blood thinning meds are making her a bit tired, but she will carry on taking them, I think she has another 3 weeks to go.
All good so far!

 

[mrandmrspoves]

My hero, Ian Anderson, is a DVT survivor.

All that standing around on one leg!

 

[ColinJ]

My hero, Ian Anderson, is a DVT survivor.

And HERE is what he had to say about it!