My Day at the Hospital
 

So for a little over a week I had been having calf pain in one leg and thought (hoped) it might just be a combination of riding and weight training that was bothering me, but yesterday I was getting nervous because it definitely didn't feel like a muscular issue and I had blood clots in that same leg once before following knee surgery. So I go to bed, wake up this morning and there was zero question in my mind when I stood up what the problem was.

So I go to my primary care physician (because you can't breathe near another doctor's office without a referral) and they refer me to get vein dopler done later in the afternoon at a specialist's office. They do their thing (which is actually pretty cool because you can both see and hear the blood in your veins) and tell me I should go to the ER. It's 4pm. I go to the ER, sit in the waiting room until 7:30 a doctor sees me and goes over the report sent over by the specialist and tells me that they don't want to treat me, but would rather see how it progresses and then determine in a few days whether to treat me or not, but would be happy to prescribe me pain medicine (WTF were talking about bloodclots here not a sprained wrist?!?!). So I essentially say I am not comfortable with that decision and he really needs to get a second opinion. So they do their own test, bloodwork etc. and the doctor comes back and says that I did actually have a very serious clot and that they are going to continue treatment.

What if I hadn't spoken up and just went home?! :zz:

Nowadays people have to be pro-active about their health, and speak up to doctors who play down therapies to be on the safe side! Glad it worked out for you.

DVT or Deep Venous Thrombosis of a leg is treated with anticoagulants when:

1) It occurs above the knee because of the chance of the clot embolizing (breaking off) and causing a pulmonary embolus which is a much more serious problem

2) You have a history of previous clots and have evidence of a clot on doppler
In truth without the previous study to compare it to there is no way of knowing whether this clot has changed at all

In your case if this truly is a second clot in this location you should be anticoagulated for life. In addition you should have a workup for hypercoagulable state to see if there is another reason why you are clotting. There are newer approaches to the clot where vascular surgeons are trying to remove the clot and shorten the period of anticoagulation. GL with this...

a hospital stay sucks... hope ur better soon. U can probably imagine what care would have been like wading thru those w/their new susidized health care cards looking for nothing but a lunch. and they hungry so f' ur clot.

You'd be high on pain meds?

Get well and unclotted Sighty.

Also do not, i repeat, do not take the pipe in the ass in Illinois!! A friend of ours had it done and came home and nearly bled to death. :{>:

I fall under scenario 2. The position this doctor seemed to be taking until they did their own doppler was that I was young and fit and therefore shouldn't be at risk despite having a previous history of 3 dvts developing after my surgery. After doing thier own tests he was singing a very different tune though.

The odd thing is, 3 months ago I got a new doctor and they ordered full blood work when I told them of my history and nothing showed up. I did just fly, but I exercise like a maniac so you would think my circulation would be good although I do have slight varicose..

Thanks for the well wishes! First thing I'm going to do is find a good doctor for this sort of issue and hope my HMO pays for it. :o

If the clots above the knee you should be treated.....

Oh they did finally put me on treatment once I made them do another test. My roommate is petrified that she has to give me a shot in my stomach twice a day. :D

Lovenox .....easier than coumdin

A pill is way easier than a shot! But, they put me on coumidin too.

damn you're old

Sage advice.

Glad you're doing okay, Sightseek - hope you are able to get back to riding soon!

Coumadin is an okay drug that works and really is a lot easier than Lovenox. I've been on coumadin for years as I have a mechanical heart valve. Getting a regular INR protine test while taking it is very important to keep the dosage in balance. Good luck and here's hoping you're back in the irons soon.:)

Don't anyone ever ignore leg pain. I did, and it cost me dearly. Jan. 9, 2008, I had a stroke. Totally paralyzed on my left side. I was with my husband when it happened, and he got me to ER within 10 minutes. Anyone who has had a stroke has a 2 hour window to get treatment. I was lucky. The paralysis lasted 3 hours, and then I was fine again. But, they didn't let me out of the hospital until 3 days later. Did all kinds of tests. Cat scan showed nothing, but MRI did.

I do not fit the profile for a stroke - don't smoke, don't drink much, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, cholesterol is well under 200, no family history, etc., etc., etc. I asked my doctor how come. He said that 20% of stroke victims do not fit the stroke profile.

I'm on Plavix and Crestor - even though my cholesterol #'s were good, they put me on it anyway. No one would notice I had any aftereffects from the stroke, but I notice I have some balance issues.

Take care everyone, and never take your health for granted.

That had to be really scary, I'm glad the paralysis was only temporary.

Illinois?!~ Hmmmmm! I could make a political comeback to that, but I won't.;)

If you're talking about a colonoscopy, don't anyone over the age of 50 neglect having one in spite of advice to the contrary.

Here is a very funny message from Dave Barry on the subject along with a very serious message.

http://www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm...man%20Interest

It was, and I'm glad, too. Hope all continues well with you. Be pro-active and insist if you think your caregivers are blowing you off.

Glad you went to the doctor.

good to see you back here and in good health!

Look into taking serrapeptase, which is a proteolytic enzyme derived from silkworms.

It digests blood clots, among other harmful things, and has been proven to be more effective than any prescription drugs, without the side effects.

It's relatively inexpensive, won't mess you up with side effects and dissolves clots faster than anything that can be prescribed to you.

I've been doing a lot of reading about coumadin and a lot of the healthy things I do for myself like drink green tea; take CoQ10; Fish Oils; Omega 3s; cranberry and eating dark green leafy veggies are actually not recommended for consumation if you are on coumadin.

Here goes.

So, don't take coumadin. If you feel safer, then maybe look into getting off that shitt once you are through this situation.

Thanks for that info, IC. I'll talk to my GP about this. My husband and I are both on statins. We had some muscle soreness which was alarming. But we take Co-Enzyme Q-10 - Bill taks 300 mgs. and I take 200 mgs. Muscle aches are gone. But, I don't necessarily like statins - just thought they were a necessary damned if you do, damned if you don't alternative. My GP tried me on some fiber type pills. They were the size of suppositories, and I had to take four of them a day. That wore thin after awhile, and they weren't doing anything to lower my #s.

Right now, I'm at 162 cholesterol with 89 HDLs and 68 LDLs. Triglycerides are under 100. So, I'm cool for now. But, if I could find something that would work as well and not a statin, that would be great.

Having a stroke is scary and I was a basket case for about 6 mos. afterwards. 2008 was a really bad, bad year - a stroke, 3 kidney stones, 2 bouts with pneumonia, a broken ankle, a back injury, a ruptured gall bladder, peritonitis, flirted with the angels, then surgery spending 3 weeks in Saratoga hospital where I missed Curlin's run in the Woodward. That was the WORSE part.:D

But I'll take another 2009 in 2010. It was a totally awesome year. So far, this year is going good, too - Rachel, Scott Brown, and now Lloydobler.:)

Statins kill far more people than they help. If you want to lower cholesterol naturally, try a red yeast rice supplement. They've been PROVEN to be more effective than any statin at lowering cholesterol without the liver destroying side effects you are currently receiving. Your doctor will almost certainly know nothing about it, since as a natural substance, the pharma companies cannot patent it and thus make criminally high profit margins on it.

Use Google to do a little research.

By the way, the reason most people have high cholesterol is because your body uses it to make hormones, repair certain types of tissue, etc. It's a very useful building block that has become demonized as a culprit in heart disease. In actuality, the repercussions from not having elevated cholesterol as a response to a serious condition is much worse than having it elevated.

Within twenty years this whole statin thing to lower cholesterol practice will be looked back at like "what was everyone thinking back then?"

Here come the flames.

I take Now Red Yeast Rice.

This is very true but more importantly SIGHTSEEK why didn't your doctor tell you about the contraindications or give you a list of what to ingest or not? That is something you should call the hospital's patient advocate about:D

I like Now Foods stuff. Their active ingredients are the same as just about anyone else and I don't know why so few others follow them in making their supplements more affordable.

How's it working for you?

No flames from me,Charlie! I'm impressed with your pro-active stance....probably thru painful experiences,huh? Where do you get this serrapeptase? Is NOW foods through a catalog?

NOW Foods is a huge brand and can be found many places. It's always cheaper to buy online.

I'd try swansonsvitamins.com, allstarhealth.com, maybe iherb.com.

Also Amazon.com come to think of it, which is where I got some serrapeptase when I had a clot in my arm (which it took care of).

My cholesterol is always going to be a tad high. My great-grandmother had extremely high cholesterol and she lived for 99 years.

I'm not too concerned about it.

So... You realize of course that the effective ingredient in RYR is a statin, right? Lovastatin actually. It's effective, but I'd rather have mine actually regulated thank you.

http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/cho...Nrxcol_rry.htm

You should really work on your reading comprehension.

Even if you were correct, feel free to have your regulated side effects instead of no side effects.

And yeah, the FDA has done such a bang up job regulating drugs. Without them, the death rate from prescription drugs would be considerably lower.

As it is, the leading cause of death in this country is from legally prescribed drugs, which comes in at over a whopping 3% of all deaths in the USA.

Go for it.

My reading comprehension is fine, thank you.
>>>In the 2009 study, the investigators performed a formal chemical analysis on the RYR product they used in their study (from Sylvan Bioproducts in Kittanning, Pennsylvania). They found that the RYR contained monacolin K (the naturally-occurring form of lovastatin), as well as eight other monacolins (statins or statin-like substances).

The result of this chemical analysis suggests two things. First, that RYR available in the U.S. apparently still contains at least some lovastatin, <<<

You're point was that statins kill. That is ridiculous, and highly hypocritical if you think this crap is a "holistic" alternative.

Personally, I think it it is all bunk. There are plenty of skinny, active, and healthy adults that have what the pharmaceutical industry deems as "high cholesterol". It is just very convenient, and brilliant by the way, marketing campaign by the drug companies to make the majority of the population believe that they can still be fat, not exercise, and take a pill to save themselves. The two are mutually exclusive and have nothing to heart disease.
Fat + lazy = heart disease...and they probably have high cholesterol.
Active, healthy + High cholesterol = a long healthy life.

You can not draw a direct correlation, as much as the drug pushers want you to believe there is one.

Keep eating Chinese mold - if you think it is helping you, that's half the battle.

I'd say it's more than half.

Sure will.