blood clots

can you get blood clotts from sitting on portaledge for a long time?

haha I couldnt resit this one!!

More than likely there will be a genetic/family history component involved, but being immobilized for an extended period of time is a contributing factor.

There was a pediatric case where they were in a car nonstop from the midwest to a ski area; planning on a spring break week, but then collapsed at the base lodge. They ended up having a huge PE (clot that gets stuck in the lung's circulation); there was a genetic condition associated.

If you keep moving around, you'll maintain venous return.

Virchow's triad

Buff's right, usually genetic predeterminant, or recent surgery would put you in the "caution" group, where you would want to move around hourly when traveling or sitting for long periods where the knees and hips are bent, hindering circulation. But without recent surgery or family history of PE's, you shouldn't need to worry.

Did you mean porta ledge or porta john?

....there goes my excuse for porta foot massages, although i still have my doubts about sitting stationary for all day. I can do max a couple of hours of just sitting.

My roommate (healthy, non smoker, 25 years old) got a PE after driving from Zion to the Grand Canyon and back to LA. No genetic predisposition.

So yeah, if I was sitting in a ledge all day, I would definitely consider doing some calf squeezes or foot circles every couple hours. You do not want a PE...

Is this where the term "roid rage" comes from?

I think MP has its newest troll: Enter craghead

The question is a legitimate one.

FWIW, immobility, cold, injury, smoking, obesity, pregnancy, estrogen use, recent surgery, cancer, age, and genetic predisposition (of which we've only identified some factors - like protein C, protein S, various Factor, prothrombin, antithrombin abnormalities) can increase one's likelihood of deep venous thrombosis (clots in the legs) which increases the chances for PE (pulmonary emboli) where the clot breaks loose and goes up to the lungs which can be life threatening, especially in hypoxic situations.

There is a famous case from K2 where Art Gilkey developed clots from at least in part sitting for a prolonged time in a tent, in the cold, and at altitude. They tried to evacuate him out in a snowstorm. There's the amazing story of Pete Schoening making a heroic ice axe arrest of something like 7 fellow climbers during this rescue attempt. Sadly, Art was lost in the effort.

Rob Gordon how do you know your roommate did not have a genetic predisposition? Did you genetically test him or are you just basing this on what you observed??

I am not a doctor, so no, I did not test him personally. But the very skilled people at Cedars Sinai did. They put him on warfarin for 6 months because I guess there is a test you have to do later or something, he came back negative on everything, then they took him off and said, don't take any more long car rides without stopping and doing jumping jacks every 2 hours.

Actually I should not say they were very skilled since they misdiagnosed him and sent him home saying that he probably just had some fluid in his lungs (this after the minor emergency said he probably had a broken rib and he came home and had an episode where he seriously looked like he was dying and couldn't breathe). Luckily he got an MRI the next day and found out he had a very large PE and 10 percent of his lung had died.

If you have chest pain and trouble breathing, don't F around. Get to an ER. If you have massive chest pain, insist on getting scanned not just x-rayed. He easily could have died.

My husband, Erik, is one of those aerobic freaks who hikes like he's got 3 lungs. One day a few years ago, we were hiking up to the First Flatiron, an approach that usually leaves me gasping and dripping sweat while he strolls along effortlessly. He couldn't go 100 yards without needing a break. He described the sensation as feeling like he was breathing fine, but the oxygen wasn't getting to his muscles. The blue tinge to his fingernail beds and lips by the time we got there was kind of a red flag (sorry). He'd previously noticed getting slightly winded coming up the long flight of stairs to our condo, but had thought he just had a touch of a cold.

Long story short, he was diagnosed less than a week later with bilateral (both lungs) PE. He thought there was no family history, but it turns out his mother's brother had been on Warfarin for years. Our terrific general practitioner doc missed it, too; said he'd thought about it, but then thought, "Nah, not this guy." Oops.

They put Erik on Lovenox (shooting himself up at home twice a day for 5 days), then Warfarin for six months, then took him off it. Within a few weeks, the clots were back. Same routine ensued. He's now on Warfarin for good, getting tested once a month. He's had no recurrence, and has stayed fairly active. We don't necessarily take any precautions on long trips, but we don't do many of those, either. And he logs a lot of time trotting up and down stairs in his job.

Seriously scary, and definitely nothing to mess with. This guy is healthy as a horse otherwise, and that otherwise damn near killed him. And by the way, he never did experience any chest pain.

Flynn- is he a climber? I reckon if he was he had to stop once he went on the warfarin?

if you are on birth control pills or a smoker those are definite risk factors. All I say is take precautions. ER seriously pisses me off the more I hear stories like that. Let me break it to you : keep going back if they brush you off, figure out charges later. They cant charge you twice for the same thing. Listen to your body.

craghead wrote: ER seriously pisses me off

craghead wrote: They cant charge you twice for the same thing.

It happened to me after less than 2 weeks of being pretty immobilized after breaking my back. I just woke up one morning feeling like I was suffocating. Many around me dismissed my difficulty as being related to my injuries (including a broken rib) but it wasn't like that - like someone said above it felt like I had no problem filling my lungs with air, it just felt like I wasn't getting any oxygen from that air. It was a Friday morning of a holiday weekend and friends wanted to wait until Monday to drive me to the hospital if I wasn't feeling better by then. I talked to a nurse friend of mine and she told me to get my ass to the ER by any means necessary.

She also told me that dealing with blood clot risks is SOP for anyone who is going to be immobilized for any length of time (post-surgery, or serious injury) but none of the ER doctors or nurses or even the neurosurgeon mentioned anything to me about the risk or things I could do to prevent it. Anytime you are immobile for a long period of time it could be a risk no matter how young and healthy you are, and remember no one knows better than you when something is seriously wrong. Take yourself seriously and make yourself heard.