# There's Nothing Quite Like a Giant Blood Clot to Make You Feel Alive **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 15, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569 "2003-07-15T04:17:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/1 "2003-07-15T04:17:04Z")
(This is cross-posted to my LJ, if anyone cares.) So I went for my annual physical last week - last Thursday, to be precise. When it was over, I mentioned that my left lower leg, ankle & foot had been swollen for about a week. Neither I nor my family thought much of it, as that leg’d been swollen once before & the vascular doc hadn’t found anything. We figured that this swelling was the result of irritated lymph nodes or some such thing, as I’ve had a buttload of surgery on my legs. My doctor, being the thorough internist that she is, was somewhat concerned: The fact that I’d been on the Pill for the last 4 months in combination with the fact that my legs are pretty sedentary (I use the wheelchair) made her worry more about the remote possibility of a blood clot than she would if only one of those factors were present. She sent me right over to another office that specializes in sonograms & Doppler radar…_stuff_… to have both legs Dopplered from groin to ankles. I assume you can sense what happened next. For those who’re slow on the uptake: Sure as shit, there was, indeed, a blood clot. It was rather large, I found out today. It stretched much of the length of my leg. Yummy, I know. I didn’t know that then; all I knew was that my dad had to take me to the emergency department of the local hospital, where I was poked four times by this stupid woman who refused to believe that she couldn’t get a vein. Once, she inserted the needle, pulling it out when she couldn’t get a flow. Well, she must’ve blown the vein; when she pulled that needle out, I gushed. I then got another tech; she got me right away. I don’t fault the first for not getting a vein; I’m a hard stick. I fault her for her hubris & for telling me “I’m pretty much it” when I intimated that perhaps we should call someone else in. Anyway, the hospital was relatively quiet. My roomate was a nice older lady in her 70s or 80s who’d been there two weeks for pneumonia. She left on Saturday - I was alone in the room for the rest of my stay. It’s kinda funny; those who came in (nursing staff, nurses’ assistants, whomever) asked my age & why I was in. I forgot that most 20 somethings aren’t in-patients. When I expressed amusement at the staff’s asking my age I was informed that the floor rarely houses young adult patients; I was a novelty. The staff I met is generally on the young side, so they appreciated my being there. I even watched five minutes of “Showtime at the Apollo” with a guy my age who was doing some overnight cleaning. 🙂 I also saw a higher percentage of male nurses than I’d seen in previous hospital stays - I had two male nurses & at least one male nurses’ assistant. I thought that was really encouraging. And they were all eye candy! Come to think of it, the female staff & the male physical therapist were attractive as well. Maybe it’s a requirement - gotta be aesthetically pleasing to be on the nursing staff. 😛 Only sucky thing about having a male nurse was that I preferred a female to help me pee & such - took a bit longer to find an available female. I spent Thursday evening 'til this (Monday) evening with my legs elevated straight up in a “V” angle from my pelvis. I got twice daily injections & twice daily pills to help thin the blood. The injections were partly a mechanism to wean me slowly onto the pills - Coumadin (sp?). I’ll be on the Coumadin for six months. I gotta be careful, as I’ll bruise much more nastily & easily/cuts will be tougher to staunch. No shaving or drinking alcohol & much more attention to how I move. Also gotta wear a knee-high compression stocking whenever I’m not laying down. Other’n that & a few more blood tests & doctor visits, it’s not a big thing. Mom’s wanting to enclose me in several layers of bubble wrap, but that’s what a mom is for, I guess. I don’t blame her for worrying - I s’pose I’m probably lucky. So that’s what I did on my summer vacation - and missed only one day of my summer class. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/2 "2003-07-15T04:55:39Z")
You missed a day of class? SLACKER! 😃 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/3 "2003-07-15T05:28:16Z")
Ooh, ick, and ouchie. Sorry to hear it **Cosmo** , but good to hear you’re on the mend. I presume the doc is satisfied that the pill + lack of mobility was the cause of the clot, and not something else? > [@](#): > > **I forgot that most 20 somethings aren’t in-patients. When I expressed amusement at the staff’s asking my age I was informed that the floor rarely houses young adult patients; I was a novelty.** When I had my final gallstone attack, and the ensuing surgery to remove the whole diseased kit and kaboodle, I found m’self in a similar situation. I was the youngest patient on the ward by about 30 years. While all the extra attention for being a bit of a sideshow attraction was nice, after a while I wanted to tell the staff to “let me bloody sleep already! Just give me my happy needle, and let me enjoy the pretty colors on the walls as I fade away, please.” And I had the juxtaposition of your problem with the sex of the nursing staff (they were almost exclusively female), and my need to use the bathroom; though I admit that I was drugged up enough for most of it that I didn’t really give a shit. [sub]You should pardon the pun, but I’ll understand if you don’t.[/sub] 😃 Best o’ luck on your recovery. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/4 "2003-07-15T17:32:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cosmopolitan \* > \*\*Other’n that & a few more blood tests & doctor visits, it’s not a big thing. \*\* Just out of professional curiosity, what blood tests are they doing? I spend a lot of my time at work testing blood samples for a handful of genetic mutations that cause predisopositions for blood clots. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/5 "2003-07-16T05:43:36Z")
After I had really rough abdominal surgery, the doctor gave me special shoes to wear in bed and an exercise to do with my feet to prevent a blood clot. It involved gently pointing the toes on one foot briefly (one second), releasing, then pointing the toes on the other foot briefly. Then continue to alternate for a minute or two. Please check with your doctor before doing this exercise. I am not a physician. I wish you a speedy recovery! ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/6 "2003-07-16T12:47:59Z")
Bananas. ---
**Author:** ![welby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@welby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/welby)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2003, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/theres-nothing-quite-like-a-giant-blood-clot-to-make-you-feel-alive/188569/7 "2003-07-16T12:51:28Z")
I just stopped in to give you props for the excellent thread title.