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A very good friend (We were 2nd Lts together years ago and now work for the same company) sent out this email about his recent near-death experience. Everyone should read and heed my friends advice, especially if you take long plane trips or driving trips. I'm posting this with his permissions:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]<span style="color: #3333FF">One of my sons seemed to always have to learn things the hard way, via his own experiences rather than learn from the experiences of others. It seems I’m beginning to follow the same pattern with regard to medical issues. I wanted to share what happened to me recently in the hope that it might help prevent something similar from happening to others. If it can save one person, then the lessons learned were worth the experience. This thing (pulmonary embolism) can and does kill more people each year than die of breast cancer, AIDS, and prostate cancer combined. Most people may have heard something about it but actually know very little. However, it turns out that most cases are easily prevented. The cause is usually a combination of dehydration and long periods of sitting with the knees bent.
My story. We recently traveled back from Germany visiting my son (recently returned from Iraq) and his family. We intended to grab water bottles before leaving their house on the way to the airport. We forgot them until about an hour into the 3 hour drive to the airport. Rather than get off the autobahn, we elected to wait until getting through security to get some water bottles for the trip home. It turns out their security is much more “secure” than ours and takes more time. We had to go through security inspections three separate times on the way to the gate. During the third layer of security, one of my camera components, when examined with those white pieces of cloth run through a machine, triggered a false alarm for bomb residue. You can imagine what we did for the next hour. I was all but body cavity searched and interrogated. By the time we got through security, the plane was ready to leave and we had to run to catch it…still with no water. By the time we got seated we were already well dehydrated. For some reason our pilot could not find smooth air to fly through for the next four or more hours over the Atlantic. Consequently, we were not allowed to get out of our seats to walk and the drink carts were not allowed in the aisles. So for many hours we were immobile and dehydrated.
Fast forward to the next few days. My right foot was swollen and painful. I ignored it for a few days thinking it would go away soon. I eventually called my son, the doc, and talked it over with him. He said it sounded like a blood clot but that I should get into see a doctor ASAP. That was a Sunday. I saw my doctor the next day. He looked it over and said it was an infection and provided antibiotics and took enough blood samples to fill a cart. He said they would call the next morning with results. The next day went by and the next. By Thursday my foot started to feel better and the swelling started to go down but I started to feel lethargic and out of breath. I called to see if they had the results yet. They could not find the results and said they would hunt them down and call back. About 5:30 that evening the doctor called and said I needed to go straight to the emergency room…they had already been advised and were waiting. The blood tests (D-Deimer?) showed I had indicators of a blood clot and needed to be treated immediately. (My son since has told me that test can be done in just a few minutes and yet it sat in someone’s inbox for four days).
At the hospital they immediately started all kinds of tests including an iodine CT scan of my chest. It showed that both lungs had many small blood clots, most likely from the clot in my foot that broke into many pieces as it went through my heart. I was told that had it not broken into smaller pieces I would have probably checked out on my own the day the clot started moving.
I won’t bore you with the details of being in the hospital for a week other than to say that waiting in the ER for over two hours for a room in the pulmonary and cardiac floor was an experience that gave me a lot of respect for ER personnel. We saw two sets of gang bangers come through with bullet holes in them, two separate accidents with multiple victims, a guy with no clothes on that was projectile vomiting, two sick babies and screaming mothers and so on and so on. It was just like something out of the show ER. In fact with a camera I could probably have recorded a full weekly series for them.
Lessons learned. The night I came home from the hospital, the wife (widow) of David Blume (embed reporter with the Army on the way to Baghdad in opening days of the war) had visited SLC on a tour to educate people about this very issue. Her husband was killed by this same thing while riding in an Army tank. I watched in fascination as she told how many people die from this each year and how easily prevented it is. Anyone that travels, including by car should never stay seated for more than 30 minutes without getting up and walking. Even while seated they should be moving their feet in back and forth motions and rotating their ankles. That process allows the blood to flow through the legs (I got to “hear” what it does using a sonogram machine when they were running tests on me). More than 70% of your blood supply resides in the lower part of your body and most of it will just sit there in your legs unless you use them to walk and walk frequently. Anyone that sits at their desk or a chair during meetings for more than 30 minutes without getting up and walking is risking a sudden and painful death. Ask anyone that has had a PE (and survived) how painful it is. I know more than one of our people that falls into that category. Somewhere between 30 and 60% of PEs result in death, usually within the first or second hour. Of those people that die without a known cause, the autopsy statistics show that between 5 and 10% died of a PE. She brought the daughter of the Governor of Utah on her show to indicate how it can happen to anyone at any time. The Governor’s daughter was 17 when she had a PE from sitting at the piano for hours. Children are at risk because of the way they sit on a bus where their feet don’t touch the floor and the back part of their knee is pressured against the seat of the bus. Same can be true in car seats. The second important piece of the puzzle is staying hydrated. The doctors and David Blume’s wife stated how important it is to drink lots of water. Nearly everything else other than water will contribute to the risk, rather than reduce the risk. Alcohol while flying makes the risk factor skyrocket.
I wore my light hiking boots for all the walking we did in Europe. I had them on while flying back and they may have contributed too. They caused a slight pinch on the top of my foot where the clot developed. Word to the wise: where comfortable footwear that is not tight while traveling.
While I expected to be back to work this next Monday my doctor last night said no way. He plans to release me for work on 7 April while they continue to get my blood levels of certain things to stabilize. After the 7th he said I should be able to travel, work and workout as normal even though my body will continue to break-up the clots in my lungs for several months. He said I may be on a certain medicine for up to six months until they are certain the clots are completely absorbed.
So, there you have it. The wise will learn from my experience. Others will be like my son and probably end up running the risk until they learn the hard way. I suggest learning from the experiences of others is a much easier and less traumatic way of gaining knowledge. Thank you for the flowers and kind words while in the hospital. Until you are in the situation, you probably never know how much they mean.
[deleted for personal reasons]
Sorry to all for such a long email, but hopefully someone learned a little piece of information that might save a life.
Thanks,
Dave
</span>[/QUOTE]
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]<span style="color: #3333FF">One of my sons seemed to always have to learn things the hard way, via his own experiences rather than learn from the experiences of others. It seems I’m beginning to follow the same pattern with regard to medical issues. I wanted to share what happened to me recently in the hope that it might help prevent something similar from happening to others. If it can save one person, then the lessons learned were worth the experience. This thing (pulmonary embolism) can and does kill more people each year than die of breast cancer, AIDS, and prostate cancer combined. Most people may have heard something about it but actually know very little. However, it turns out that most cases are easily prevented. The cause is usually a combination of dehydration and long periods of sitting with the knees bent.
My story. We recently traveled back from Germany visiting my son (recently returned from Iraq) and his family. We intended to grab water bottles before leaving their house on the way to the airport. We forgot them until about an hour into the 3 hour drive to the airport. Rather than get off the autobahn, we elected to wait until getting through security to get some water bottles for the trip home. It turns out their security is much more “secure” than ours and takes more time. We had to go through security inspections three separate times on the way to the gate. During the third layer of security, one of my camera components, when examined with those white pieces of cloth run through a machine, triggered a false alarm for bomb residue. You can imagine what we did for the next hour. I was all but body cavity searched and interrogated. By the time we got through security, the plane was ready to leave and we had to run to catch it…still with no water. By the time we got seated we were already well dehydrated. For some reason our pilot could not find smooth air to fly through for the next four or more hours over the Atlantic. Consequently, we were not allowed to get out of our seats to walk and the drink carts were not allowed in the aisles. So for many hours we were immobile and dehydrated.
Fast forward to the next few days. My right foot was swollen and painful. I ignored it for a few days thinking it would go away soon. I eventually called my son, the doc, and talked it over with him. He said it sounded like a blood clot but that I should get into see a doctor ASAP. That was a Sunday. I saw my doctor the next day. He looked it over and said it was an infection and provided antibiotics and took enough blood samples to fill a cart. He said they would call the next morning with results. The next day went by and the next. By Thursday my foot started to feel better and the swelling started to go down but I started to feel lethargic and out of breath. I called to see if they had the results yet. They could not find the results and said they would hunt them down and call back. About 5:30 that evening the doctor called and said I needed to go straight to the emergency room…they had already been advised and were waiting. The blood tests (D-Deimer?) showed I had indicators of a blood clot and needed to be treated immediately. (My son since has told me that test can be done in just a few minutes and yet it sat in someone’s inbox for four days).
At the hospital they immediately started all kinds of tests including an iodine CT scan of my chest. It showed that both lungs had many small blood clots, most likely from the clot in my foot that broke into many pieces as it went through my heart. I was told that had it not broken into smaller pieces I would have probably checked out on my own the day the clot started moving.
I won’t bore you with the details of being in the hospital for a week other than to say that waiting in the ER for over two hours for a room in the pulmonary and cardiac floor was an experience that gave me a lot of respect for ER personnel. We saw two sets of gang bangers come through with bullet holes in them, two separate accidents with multiple victims, a guy with no clothes on that was projectile vomiting, two sick babies and screaming mothers and so on and so on. It was just like something out of the show ER. In fact with a camera I could probably have recorded a full weekly series for them.
Lessons learned. The night I came home from the hospital, the wife (widow) of David Blume (embed reporter with the Army on the way to Baghdad in opening days of the war) had visited SLC on a tour to educate people about this very issue. Her husband was killed by this same thing while riding in an Army tank. I watched in fascination as she told how many people die from this each year and how easily prevented it is. Anyone that travels, including by car should never stay seated for more than 30 minutes without getting up and walking. Even while seated they should be moving their feet in back and forth motions and rotating their ankles. That process allows the blood to flow through the legs (I got to “hear” what it does using a sonogram machine when they were running tests on me). More than 70% of your blood supply resides in the lower part of your body and most of it will just sit there in your legs unless you use them to walk and walk frequently. Anyone that sits at their desk or a chair during meetings for more than 30 minutes without getting up and walking is risking a sudden and painful death. Ask anyone that has had a PE (and survived) how painful it is. I know more than one of our people that falls into that category. Somewhere between 30 and 60% of PEs result in death, usually within the first or second hour. Of those people that die without a known cause, the autopsy statistics show that between 5 and 10% died of a PE. She brought the daughter of the Governor of Utah on her show to indicate how it can happen to anyone at any time. The Governor’s daughter was 17 when she had a PE from sitting at the piano for hours. Children are at risk because of the way they sit on a bus where their feet don’t touch the floor and the back part of their knee is pressured against the seat of the bus. Same can be true in car seats. The second important piece of the puzzle is staying hydrated. The doctors and David Blume’s wife stated how important it is to drink lots of water. Nearly everything else other than water will contribute to the risk, rather than reduce the risk. Alcohol while flying makes the risk factor skyrocket.
I wore my light hiking boots for all the walking we did in Europe. I had them on while flying back and they may have contributed too. They caused a slight pinch on the top of my foot where the clot developed. Word to the wise: where comfortable footwear that is not tight while traveling.
While I expected to be back to work this next Monday my doctor last night said no way. He plans to release me for work on 7 April while they continue to get my blood levels of certain things to stabilize. After the 7th he said I should be able to travel, work and workout as normal even though my body will continue to break-up the clots in my lungs for several months. He said I may be on a certain medicine for up to six months until they are certain the clots are completely absorbed.
So, there you have it. The wise will learn from my experience. Others will be like my son and probably end up running the risk until they learn the hard way. I suggest learning from the experiences of others is a much easier and less traumatic way of gaining knowledge. Thank you for the flowers and kind words while in the hospital. Until you are in the situation, you probably never know how much they mean.
[deleted for personal reasons]
Sorry to all for such a long email, but hopefully someone learned a little piece of information that might save a life.
Thanks,
Dave
</span>[/QUOTE]
