(08-06-2013 05:00 PM)eastisbest Wrote: (08-06-2013 04:12 PM)MotoRocket Wrote: Interesting that Smith had a blood clot. That could be very dangerous - but since they did not go into any details, we have to assume it did not end up in his lungs - which can be fatal, and at the least would put him on a blood thinner for about 4-6 months as a precaution - which would have ended his football season. I just got out of the hospital this afternoon with my 2nd bout against of blood clots getting to my lungs (pulmonary embollisms) in the past 13 years. I've been lucky twice now - and my doctor reminded me that I do not have 7 lives left.
Eh, what do doctors know. Good health to you and of course to Smith. How would they catch something like that?
Didn't mean to highjack the thread - just a weird coincidence I saw that. To answer the question because it could help someone else reading this:
Unfortunately, if you are going to get dealt a fatal hand, you will likely not have time to do anything about it. I had extreme shortness of breath, but by then, the clots were already in the veins around my lungs and were not severe enough to be fatal. I just had extreme shortness of breath. I still had about an 8-inch clot in my femeral vein (DVT) that was breaking off and passing through my heart and getting caught in my lungs, but fortunately it was not severe enough to cause more than a significant problem with being able to catch my breath after walking up a flight of stairs. I did that the first time around, then had a doctor who misdiagnosed it.
If that ever happens to anyone - head straight to the emergency room - PERIOD. If fact, have someone drive you or get an ambulance called. The likelihood is that you will survive if you get to that point and are still alive - but you cannot fool around to see if it will go away.
The bad thing is that they cannot detect it ahead of time. My situation appears to be hereditary. It is a blood disorder (hyper- coagulation) which will likely have me on blood thinners the rest of my life, but I'm trying to avoid that without creating more risk.
The doctor did tell me it's like having three bullets in a 6 chamber revolver. So far I have spun it twice and shot the empty chamber - those chambers have now been replaced with live rounds. That put it in perspective for me. With the proper medication, the risk is gone, but other risks emerge.
My plan is to drink alcohol all the time and thin it out that way.
You all may want to see if there is a history in your family of blood clots. About 100,000 people die each year in the US from this. If you recall, David Bloom died from that when we was a correspondent over in Iraq. Serena Williams, Bobby Ross (former Lion's coach), Bonnie Bernstein (from ESPN) and many other celebs have had close calls.
