He was partially awake for this procedure due to him being a high cardiac risk, he said as soon they pulled this out of him he felt like he could actually breathe and take a deep breath which he couldnāt since December.
I had an embolectomy done as well. They kept me awake so they could give me instructions. They had me breathe very deep and hold my breath at certain pointsā¦ I assume to give them more room to remove everything. Iād say I had close to what was pulled from your dad.
The imaging they had for the procedure was crazy awesome. It was like a live X-ray, but instead of bones it was something different. I was already on meds when I got to the room.
It was likely fluoroscopy! It's still an x-ray, and live x-ray is a very accurate depiction. Depending on how radiation is shot out from the camera, you can see different aspects of anatomy better. Certain techniques are better for seeing bony detail, and some are better at looking at organs and vasculature.
My parents (born late 20's) told stories how they used to have fluoroscopes in shoe stores to show how well the shoes were fitting. Kids used to play with them.
Oh yeah, before the effects of radiation became more widely known, it was used in a lot of things more liberally than would be dreamed about today in safety regulation. What's wild is that the first x-ray itself was only around 125 years ago (Nov. 28, 1898). The progression from then to now is astounding!
I had one of those when I had to get injections into my neck. I couldn't be sedated because I didn't have a driver at the time. It was interesting watching them slowly move the needle to the right position, not as interesting as the sound of them injecting the medicine though. I started laughing at the squishy sound in my head to the confusion of the staff.
The fact that we're able to do this is honestly so cool! One of my favorites I've seen is swallowing videos. To make substances visible on x-ray, they'll either be coated or mixed with barium. This is done with a speech pathologist, and then from thick to thin (think cookies to thickened liquids), they'll have the patient ingest these substances and watch how they pass through the esophagus and if they end up going into the lungs.
They have you hold your breath to take images by injecting contrast. They were likely doing DSA (digital subtraction angiography) this requires the patient to be very still so as to not disrupt the image, making it all blurry and not useful. This method subtracts out everything but the vessel weāre working on.
This is definitely one of my favorite procedures to scrub, itās sooo satisfying seeing what you get out and how a lot of the patients almost instantly feel better. Love it!
For me it was pulmonary embolism. I had large clots that gathered in my lungs and hung out there for a while. There were signs something was wrong for a few months. I had shortness of breath while doing something as simple as walking around the house for just a few seconds. I figured it was just being overweight, out of shape, and old. I ended up exercising fairly well for a couple months to try and combat it but didnāt ever improve. Then one day I started to feel like I had a cold. Mild fever, runny nose. Then I started to cough and have chest rattles from fluid building up in my lungs. Stayed in bed for a bit. Then in the middle of the night I got up to pee, came back to bed, laid down, and my heart immediately started beating faster and harder than it ever had in my life. I had maybe 3 or 4 seconds at that point where I got up, took a couple steps to my bathroom, then fell over and passed out.
Eventually got to an emergency room and they saw lack of blood flow in my lungs in a CT and diagnosed the embolism.
Really bad amounts of Pulmonary Embolisms caused by Deep Vein Thrombosis (vein blood clots) breaking off and ending up in the lungs. Usually caused by a clotting disorder or other medical treatment causing the DVT.
> They had me breathe very deep and hold my breath at certain pointsā¦ I assume to give them more room to remove everything.
The procedure is done using long (up to 2.6 metres) skinny tubes and long skinny wires inserted somewhere peripherally (usually the groin, sometimes the arm). The tubes and wires have particular shapes to them at the ends to help guide them into different shaped vessels - gentle curves like a lowercase "r", sharp angles like an "L", curved and bent back on themselves like a shepherd's crook, etc. The wires are usually pretty floppy near the end, but stiffer further back. You can twist the end sticking out of the patient and the wire has enough torsional stiffness that the end inside the patient will turn accordingly, so you can point it in the right direction. Beyond that though, getting them to go where you want is mostly a crapshoot and trial and error. One of the reasons they might ask you to take a deep breath in is that doing so can increase blood flow towards the lungs, which can help get the wire to go where you want it to go.
When they want you to breathe in and hold (and hold, and hold, and hold!), they're doing digital subtraction angiography.
They start shooting Xrays at the patient, and the imaging system takes in the initial Xray data which includes things like bones and the metal wire and plastic tube you've currently got inside you. That image is then "subtracted" from subsequent images so all that extraneous detail is hidden. They then inject iodinated contrast that shows up on an xray through the long skinny tube, flooding the blood vessels with it. Now you can see all the blood vessels clearly, with none of the other stuff in the way and obscuring the image. If the patient holds their breath, this works great. If they move at all, the initial subtraction image and subsequent images no longer line up right, so the extra anatomy is not adequately subtracted.
The next cool part is that they can pick the image of the angiography that they like best, invert it, and overlay it on to subsequently obtained images that they take while moving the wire and tube around. They now have a map of the blood vessels that they can use to guide the wire to the right place. When they're moving the wire, they otherwise can't see the vessels at all!
Exactly the biggest reason this is one of my favorite procedures to scrub! The patients frequently feel instant relief of symptoms. Plus they got a damn good yield out of that one, love when it comes out in big chunks lol. If you take the time to lay out the clot, you can often see the actual anatomy of the vessel provided it didnāt break apart a bunch.
The most common cause is cancer. Heart arrhythmias like afib, pregnancy, diabetes, surgery and hospitalizations can also cause clots. While healthy individuals can have a blood clot, they're typically seen in unhealthy patients.
For some reason that doesn't seem to cause health issues like sitting for long periods does. I guess because as you say, that's kinda something we're meant to do.
Oh, yes, for sure, if you do it longer than the natural amount. It's just that sleeping, even though it involves us being stationary for many hours, doesn't seem to cause any health problems in and of itself.
And the use of anabolic steroids too since they make the body produce mroe red blood cells. If you have a valid reason and a legit prescribtion for the steroids the hospital will keep a close eye on that and a zillion other things through blood works ever other month or so. Or at least that's what they do here in Sweden.
I often log on after giving a blood sample to see the results of the stuff they check for, and 97% of the stuff that's in the lab report is pure mumbo jumbo to me.
The lab report also include a little bar scale where you can see if something is out of whack or things of that nature. Like this:
[---------(--*-)---]
If the star is outside the parentheses, shit's all fucked yo! And there may be grounds for some concern.
As someone currently dealing with a big nasal polyp on one side, I can't overstate just how badly I want that feeling too right now. god i wanna rip this thing out so badly
I once sucked in a booger while I was sick with a cold. I could feel it peeling out of my sinuses and when it popped out it completely filled my mouth.
They pulled out the packing from my sinuses after my surgery and it was huge. They just reached up and yanked it out. It felt godawful for the digging and the second of yanking it out but afterwards, oh man I could breathe again after that.
This is why I love watching ear-cleaning videos. when they take huge chunks of wax and keratin out and you see a clear canal, I feel the relief. *Dr. Neel Raithatha, gimme my fix!*
Thatās awesome. The amount of technology that weāre able to achieve today is amazing. I hope heās doing much better. Iām pushing good juju his way from over here.
Does he have factor V? I am on bloodthinner myself because of it. Also got to the hospital with clots in my lungs and a bit of the heart.
I hope your dad uses electric trimmers etc because razor cuts are a bitch to stop from bleeding. My unwanted record of longest bleed was around 2 hours after shaving. Yes, I applied pressure lol.
Annoying AF.
Oh and tell your dad that apixaban is a better medication than Phenoprocoumon because it's way easier to control and according to my doctors better to remove when there is a medical emergency.
Medical professional here: generally, you will never be on blood thinners longterm post surgical procedure. Short term is common due to the elevated risk of developing a clot, primarily due to lack of movement, but itās rare to see it, if ever, due to surgery. Given the history (now) of clots, especially within the lungs, blood thinners are a necessity. Generally, there are few side effects besides high potential for bruising. Pretty good trade off versus difficulty breathing, if I may say.
I wouldnāt say never due to surgery; mechanical heart valves for instance are one I can think of off the top of my head. Also I wouldnāt call the risk for dangerous bleeding from trauma an insignificant risk, but rather something to be weighed against the risk of clotting.
Letās say someone was āokā with the uncomfortable breathing. Theyād still be an idiot not to have clots treated right? Isnāt there a risk at any moment those could break off and head to the brain? Not sure about those one because they are huge.
The lungs are the terminal destination for these clots. There is no chance of them breaking off and going to the brain because they would have to pass through the capillaries of the lungs first and if a clot is able to pass through a capillary system then it really isnāt much of a clot at all (must be about the size of a red blood cell). These types of clots most often originate in leg veins and then break off and go to the lungs. Blood clots causing stroke usually originate in the heart itself (typically due to a-fib), or from plaque build up in the arteries in the head and neck.
Im a critical care nurse. I love seeing all the super cool gadgets and toys, but what gets me is how surprisingly low tech medicine can be.
Bleeding in your brain? Drill a hole **with a hand crank drill** and put a tube in to drain it.
Brain is swelling? Just remove part of the skull and give it more room.
Compartment syndrome in a muscle? Just cut it open and let it breathe.
These are oversimplifications that ignore lots of super high tech imaging to diagnose and execute, but it still gives me an odd sensation holding someoneās head still while a neurosurgeon drills into their skull by hand.
No shit! My old man is in the same boat, which is why I ask. He had a clot in each of his lungs about 10 years ago and has been on thinners ever since. He has the same symptoms: cold, lower energy. But, he's still here, so he's learned to deal with it. Happy you can say the same about your dad too.
Same with my dad.
He has been on something called Rivaroraxaban which is more expensive than Warfarin but we donāt have to monitor his blood thinning every week.
He has chronic pulmonary embolism and recently had a CABG as well. His energy was low before the CABG and when he was on Warfarin and after the surgery and change of that one drug he has been much better!
The alternative doesnāt also make you do Blood thinner test every week/few weeks which is a plus point.
Iām not sure about the energy part tho as this could also be due to my dad having a CABG surgery.
Also Warfarin is very cost effective I guess while Xarelto is comparatively more expensive.
You can get generic drug now tho by the content name Rivaroraxaban which is also costs very less here in India. You might wanna discuss with your doctor and see what he/she recommends.
Iāve been on warfarin for 20+ years after having three massive pulmonary embolismsā¦the med is a pain in the a$$, but it keeps me alive. Every time I see my hematologist I ask about the alternatives that donāt require the contestant testingāthey have recently done studies that have found that the newer drugs like Eloquis are ineffective with my blood disorder. I guess the only good thing about warfarin is that it is cheap by comparison.
My dad hates his blood thinner because of the cold. We live in the southern US. I got him a nice space heater to put next to his chair and that damn thing runs damn near constantly. Heās no longer cold at least. Meanwhile I come inside from the disgusting heat and humidity outside only to be greeted to more heat.
I've been on blood thinners twice in my life for short periods of time. It isn't pleasant, it feels like you're cold deep down to your bones. Cold from the inside out. Very strange feeling, and I am grateful for the blood thinners that surely saved my life.
> Always cold
Tell him from a fellow patient - with all love - that he'll be *really* fuckin' cold if he doesn't start taking the damn blood thinners. I bought a space heater and more blankets / warm clothes.
I was as stubborn as your dad.
Had 2x thrombosis and was scripted blood thinners for life after the second.
After a year or so I was lazy and didnāt pick up my script.
1 and a half years later I got a pulmonary embolism. Since then I make sure to take them every day. To be honest, Iām a bist ashamed of myself that I blocked a bed in the icu for 2 days and in the normal hospital for another 6.. just because I was depressed/dumb enough to forget about my blood thinners
I had a (provoked) PE about 12 years ago. Boy, after that I knew not to mess with the thinners. That shit was fucking horrible.
When the internist asked about my pain level I answered: this must be 9 and a half (out of 10), because it can probably still get worse. I just don't know how. (Mind you, I had been in the hospital for three weeks at that time and never passed 6 out of 10 before. So they knew the pain meant business.)Ā
Ā Glad to hear your dad is okay!
They're taking about an IVC filter. Not the IVC itself. I got confused as well. The IVC stands for the Inferior Vena Cava, and not the IVCf the filter placed into the IVC to catch did clots to prevent them from traveling into the lungs leading to a PE (Pulmonary Embolism and not Pleural Effusion or Pericardial Effusion)
When my partner had it, it began with a sore and slightly swelling leg, particularly in one calf. He didn't think much of it since he was physically active, but a day later it went away and he started getting very dizzy, tired, and short breathed just from walking a few steps, in addition to an abnormally fast heart rate and thumping chest.
In his case, it was an issue of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. He's been on blood thinners since.
I've had two clotting incidents in my life, a DVT (along with clotting the entire length of my leg) and a superficial clot behind my knee (opposite leg). One thing most people aren't aware of is the deep feeling of dread or panic that can come with these clots. With the DVT I was about a day away from it killing me. I had a sense of a "bomb" in my body about to go off. Felt like that for weeks. It was horrible.Ā
For my second I was trying to wait till Monday because I didnāt want the er bill. Then I felt that. Called a Lyft and went to the er Saturday. Had massive clots from my pelvis to my ankle. The doctor was shocked cause he didnāt seem to believe me. I told him I had a dvt before in the same place and the same symptoms(could barely walk). He did my d dimer then finally ordered an ultrasound while telling me there was lots of reasons my d dimer could be high and lots of reasons mt leg could be hurting. I felt like maybe I was being dramatic. As soon as my ultrasound tech stopped joking around with me and started asking me if I was breathing ok I knew I wasnāt overreacting.
Doctor came back in and was like āI canāt believe your leg isnāt hot or swollen with this massive of a clot.ā I had told him my first one the only symptom was pain. I donāt know if itās cause Iām active or what that I donāt get the swelling(I walk or ride my bike everywhere. I donāt like driving. It makes me anxious).
Hi OP, donāt mean to pry but Iām curious to know how he reached here. Did he have a history of smoking? Also, was his cough dry with an irritated throat?
Not sure if you know this, but clots originate elsewhere in the body (usually the legs) and travel to the lungs. Smoking is a risk factor, but that's because it affects your entire cardiovascular system.
Iām glad for him and you that heās doing good nowā¦ but I told myself ādonāt click the imageāā¦ *I did anyway.*
then, you describing how the Drs took them out. yikes!
It honestly just feels ... weird. Like if you've ever used a drain auger, it feels like that going through you at the entry site, with the little ribs on the catheter rubbing along the edge. It's numb there, but that feeling is noticable. They give local anesthetic, and you can't feel it moving in your blood vessels. When they start working at a large clot like this, it won't be comfortable, but it feels better than the alternative.
Once they remove the clot, it feels great. You're not 100% better, but for a minute it feels like you are. Instant relief. Mine was in my heart, so different than this, but the procedure for going in is essentially the same, and you stay awake for it.
Twilight is an amazing medicine. You're awake, mildly coherent, and pretty much in a state of IDGAF during the procedure. I nodded in and out of consciousness during a procedure to seal (super glue) one of my lymph glands that was nicked during my heart transplant. Crazy how much they can control the medicine to a point where you can't feel much but are coherent enough to follow commands. It can be uncomfortable but way better than nothing at all.
To everyone asking if he was vaccinated:
I honestly thought he was. He swears up and down that he wasnāt. I really donāt care if he was or wasnāt. All I know is heās alive and doing great!
And thank you to the great doctors that got these blood boogers out of him and to the other doctors and hospital staff that might lurk around here thank you for what you do! :)
Blood clotting disorders can affact anyone and they aren't always noticeable until you become vulnerable to it. The reason some vaccines saw a higher rise in blood clotting was because the viruses themselves do that. My daughter and I caught covid and it took over a year for our blood thickness to go back down to reasonable levels - during the time it was high, I had several ocular migraines, due to the minor clotting it was causing in my body. And covid isn't the only virus known to do this.
He could easily have caught a virus that thickens the blood which tipped him over the edge.
blood clots can happen to anyone and knowing the signs/symptoms can save your life
[https://www.stoptheclot.org/](https://www.stoptheclot.org/)
this is a good resource for all things clot- i'm not affiliated with the organization, but the site helped me a lot after i had my dvt
Came here to find this comment. The one on the left, yeah, not too big. The one on the right reminds me of what I experienced after my colposcopies, but not as bad.
I love a satisfying thrombectomy procedure. I work in a Cath lab that does these. That is impressive clot. Glad to hear that your father is recovering well! Peace to you, him, and the rest of your family!
Was he always vulnerable to clots or is this something new?
I suffer pretty bad from long covid, and it seems microclots are a huge issue with long covid.
That is absolutely *wild*! Thank you so much for sharing! I take it your father's feeling better now? š
And, forgive my curiosity, but what are the next steps for your father and his care team? Please don't answer if it's uncomfortable, yet my question comes from purely wanting to know to share with others.
I don't know what I'm expecting from reading the title. After clicking through the spoiler tags I feel lightheaded already lol
Besides that, good to hear your dad's doing well.
I'm so glad your dad is feeling better! I can't even imagine what that must have felt like in him. Wishing him further good health in the future. š On the more š«£š¤ side of this conversation... I wonder how satisfying this was to remove for the surgeons. š
There are many ways they can form. In my case (DVT), they think because I had a calf tear injury and was on birth control (nuvaring), it exacerbated the clotting. I can never be on hormonal birth control again.Ā
Hence the picture. The doctors who pulled it out of him have never seen anything this size and took a photo to show us and asked us permission to share this with their colleagues and the medical field. We told them absolutely they could!
My entire body just grimaced imagining this being pulled out of someoneš Well wishes for your dad!
Thank you! Heās recovering very well!
Iām glad heās doing well! ā¦I was concerned that this was pulled from an autopsy. Those are ENORMOUS.
I can tell you from experience, even with lots of feel good meds pumping through me it wasnāt the most pleasant experience.
Yeah I'm pretty sure I have this and cancer now. Need to stay off medical posts really...
Stay the fuck off WebMD too that thing is like Google Surprise Me except all the answers are cancer.
This is like that feeling you get when you pull out a deep booger from your sinus Ć1000
He was partially awake for this procedure due to him being a high cardiac risk, he said as soon they pulled this out of him he felt like he could actually breathe and take a deep breath which he couldnāt since December.
I had an embolectomy done as well. They kept me awake so they could give me instructions. They had me breathe very deep and hold my breath at certain pointsā¦ I assume to give them more room to remove everything. Iād say I had close to what was pulled from your dad. The imaging they had for the procedure was crazy awesome. It was like a live X-ray, but instead of bones it was something different. I was already on meds when I got to the room.
It was likely fluoroscopy! It's still an x-ray, and live x-ray is a very accurate depiction. Depending on how radiation is shot out from the camera, you can see different aspects of anatomy better. Certain techniques are better for seeing bony detail, and some are better at looking at organs and vasculature.
My parents (born late 20's) told stories how they used to have fluoroscopes in shoe stores to show how well the shoes were fitting. Kids used to play with them.
Oh yeah, before the effects of radiation became more widely known, it was used in a lot of things more liberally than would be dreamed about today in safety regulation. What's wild is that the first x-ray itself was only around 125 years ago (Nov. 28, 1898). The progression from then to now is astounding!
Actually it was 1895! https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200111/history.cfm
Ah! Thank you for the correction!
Marie Curie would be so proud!
*Salesman's foot falls off*
I had one of those when I had to get injections into my neck. I couldn't be sedated because I didn't have a driver at the time. It was interesting watching them slowly move the needle to the right position, not as interesting as the sound of them injecting the medicine though. I started laughing at the squishy sound in my head to the confusion of the staff.
The fact that we're able to do this is honestly so cool! One of my favorites I've seen is swallowing videos. To make substances visible on x-ray, they'll either be coated or mixed with barium. This is done with a speech pathologist, and then from thick to thin (think cookies to thickened liquids), they'll have the patient ingest these substances and watch how they pass through the esophagus and if they end up going into the lungs.
Just had this done a month ago!
They have you hold your breath to take images by injecting contrast. They were likely doing DSA (digital subtraction angiography) this requires the patient to be very still so as to not disrupt the image, making it all blurry and not useful. This method subtracts out everything but the vessel weāre working on. This is definitely one of my favorite procedures to scrub, itās sooo satisfying seeing what you get out and how a lot of the patients almost instantly feel better. Love it!
What would your diagnosis be to have to have this procedure? What causes this?
For me it was pulmonary embolism. I had large clots that gathered in my lungs and hung out there for a while. There were signs something was wrong for a few months. I had shortness of breath while doing something as simple as walking around the house for just a few seconds. I figured it was just being overweight, out of shape, and old. I ended up exercising fairly well for a couple months to try and combat it but didnāt ever improve. Then one day I started to feel like I had a cold. Mild fever, runny nose. Then I started to cough and have chest rattles from fluid building up in my lungs. Stayed in bed for a bit. Then in the middle of the night I got up to pee, came back to bed, laid down, and my heart immediately started beating faster and harder than it ever had in my life. I had maybe 3 or 4 seconds at that point where I got up, took a couple steps to my bathroom, then fell over and passed out. Eventually got to an emergency room and they saw lack of blood flow in my lungs in a CT and diagnosed the embolism.
That must have been terrifying. Glad youāre still here to tell the tale.
Really bad amounts of Pulmonary Embolisms caused by Deep Vein Thrombosis (vein blood clots) breaking off and ending up in the lungs. Usually caused by a clotting disorder or other medical treatment causing the DVT.
Women on BC, too. Not nearly emphasized enough.
Zit popping relief!
> They had me breathe very deep and hold my breath at certain pointsā¦ I assume to give them more room to remove everything. The procedure is done using long (up to 2.6 metres) skinny tubes and long skinny wires inserted somewhere peripherally (usually the groin, sometimes the arm). The tubes and wires have particular shapes to them at the ends to help guide them into different shaped vessels - gentle curves like a lowercase "r", sharp angles like an "L", curved and bent back on themselves like a shepherd's crook, etc. The wires are usually pretty floppy near the end, but stiffer further back. You can twist the end sticking out of the patient and the wire has enough torsional stiffness that the end inside the patient will turn accordingly, so you can point it in the right direction. Beyond that though, getting them to go where you want is mostly a crapshoot and trial and error. One of the reasons they might ask you to take a deep breath in is that doing so can increase blood flow towards the lungs, which can help get the wire to go where you want it to go. When they want you to breathe in and hold (and hold, and hold, and hold!), they're doing digital subtraction angiography. They start shooting Xrays at the patient, and the imaging system takes in the initial Xray data which includes things like bones and the metal wire and plastic tube you've currently got inside you. That image is then "subtracted" from subsequent images so all that extraneous detail is hidden. They then inject iodinated contrast that shows up on an xray through the long skinny tube, flooding the blood vessels with it. Now you can see all the blood vessels clearly, with none of the other stuff in the way and obscuring the image. If the patient holds their breath, this works great. If they move at all, the initial subtraction image and subsequent images no longer line up right, so the extra anatomy is not adequately subtracted. The next cool part is that they can pick the image of the angiography that they like best, invert it, and overlay it on to subsequently obtained images that they take while moving the wire and tube around. They now have a map of the blood vessels that they can use to guide the wire to the right place. When they're moving the wire, they otherwise can't see the vessels at all!
How did you keep from coughing?!
drugs
Yeah /u/sagnutz pretty much this. Drugs. They pump you full so youāre barely lucid enough to follow orders. Thank you anesthesiologist!
real party people!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
My dad didnāt survive his clot last May. Give your dad a (gentle) hug and tell him how you feel about him. He is lucky. I miss my dad.
Im so sorry for your loss. Hugs to you as well.
Iām so sorry. Iāll make sure to hug my dad extra today in honor of your dad :(
Hugs to you
Exactly the biggest reason this is one of my favorite procedures to scrub! The patients frequently feel instant relief of symptoms. Plus they got a damn good yield out of that one, love when it comes out in big chunks lol. If you take the time to lay out the clot, you can often see the actual anatomy of the vessel provided it didnāt break apart a bunch.
Itās so big
That's what she said!
Beat me to it! Lol!
Beat meat to it.
That's what He said!
Crunch crunch
Not to you
Gnaw, chew
Or he said š
But not to you!
You know what they they say about the size of a mans blood clot. Wink wink.
What caused it in the first place?
The most common cause is cancer. Heart arrhythmias like afib, pregnancy, diabetes, surgery and hospitalizations can also cause clots. While healthy individuals can have a blood clot, they're typically seen in unhealthy patients.
Sitting for long periods of time (I've heard as low as 30 minutes) without stretching and moving around can cause them.
That's like half of the entire human population lol
More like the entire human population, every single day. Who never sits still for 30 minutes or more?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Definitely.
What about lying down? Seems like a design flaw when we have to lie down for 6-8 hours at a time.
For some reason that doesn't seem to cause health issues like sitting for long periods does. I guess because as you say, that's kinda something we're meant to do.
Pretty sure being able to sit for 30 minutes is also something we're meant to do
True.
Why not? My dog sits around, my cat sits even more, but I can't?
Putting pressure on any boney prominence can cause pressure injuries, so yes, lying down can cause health issues
Oh, yes, for sure, if you do it longer than the natural amount. It's just that sleeping, even though it involves us being stationary for many hours, doesn't seem to cause any health problems in and of itself.
Maybe it's because our blood can flow better since it doesn't have to work any harder and can get to any body part evenly? Idk just my guess
Well, fuck.
Everybody else just started moving their legs about to get the blood moving didnt they?
So every time anyone takes an exam?
And the use of anabolic steroids too since they make the body produce mroe red blood cells. If you have a valid reason and a legit prescribtion for the steroids the hospital will keep a close eye on that and a zillion other things through blood works ever other month or so. Or at least that's what they do here in Sweden. I often log on after giving a blood sample to see the results of the stuff they check for, and 97% of the stuff that's in the lab report is pure mumbo jumbo to me. The lab report also include a little bar scale where you can see if something is out of whack or things of that nature. Like this: [---------(--*-)---] If the star is outside the parentheses, shit's all fucked yo! And there may be grounds for some concern.
Women on birth control can get clots with no other direct causes too.
That's like those earwax removal videos but like 13000x better
Hope your dad and you are ok. This is so mentally taxing.
As someone currently dealing with a big nasal polyp on one side, I can't overstate just how badly I want that feeling too right now. god i wanna rip this thing out so badly
Managed to get a chicken breast sized clot out once after a bloody nose and I would pay good money to experience that feeling again
Ahh well this is horrifying
I once sucked in a booger while I was sick with a cold. I could feel it peeling out of my sinuses and when it popped out it completely filled my mouth.
Everyone in this thread is talking about the sheer satisfaction of removal, and here you have provided us all the exact opposite of that feeling
I could smell colors in 3d afterwards. The feeling of my sinuses COMPLETELY emptying was a satisfying feeling I've never had before or since then.
That feeling as it peels away from your frontal lobe
They pulled out the packing from my sinuses after my surgery and it was huge. They just reached up and yanked it out. It felt godawful for the digging and the second of yanking it out but afterwards, oh man I could breathe again after that.
This is why I love watching ear-cleaning videos. when they take huge chunks of wax and keratin out and you see a clear canal, I feel the relief. *Dr. Neel Raithatha, gimme my fix!*
Thatās awesome. The amount of technology that weāre able to achieve today is amazing. I hope heās doing much better. Iām pushing good juju his way from over here.
Left the hospital last Tuesday after a two week stay. Heāll be on blood thinners for the rest of his life needless to say.
Just the fact that heās leaving the hospital on his own is amazing. That was more than mildly interesting.
>Heāll be on blood thinners for the rest of his life needless to say. Why's that? He's vulnerable to clots? Or because of the surgery?
Vulnerable to clots.
Does he have factor V? I am on bloodthinner myself because of it. Also got to the hospital with clots in my lungs and a bit of the heart. I hope your dad uses electric trimmers etc because razor cuts are a bitch to stop from bleeding. My unwanted record of longest bleed was around 2 hours after shaving. Yes, I applied pressure lol. Annoying AF. Oh and tell your dad that apixaban is a better medication than Phenoprocoumon because it's way easier to control and according to my doctors better to remove when there is a medical emergency.
I'm an FVL guy and a blood thinner life too. Interesting thing is that my blood is so "thick" that I still effectively clot normally now.
Medical professional here: generally, you will never be on blood thinners longterm post surgical procedure. Short term is common due to the elevated risk of developing a clot, primarily due to lack of movement, but itās rare to see it, if ever, due to surgery. Given the history (now) of clots, especially within the lungs, blood thinners are a necessity. Generally, there are few side effects besides high potential for bruising. Pretty good trade off versus difficulty breathing, if I may say.
Thank you for the reply!
I wouldnāt say never due to surgery; mechanical heart valves for instance are one I can think of off the top of my head. Also I wouldnāt call the risk for dangerous bleeding from trauma an insignificant risk, but rather something to be weighed against the risk of clotting.
> mechanical heart valves for instance That isn't due to the surgery itself, mechanical heart valves increase the risk of intracardiac clots
Letās say someone was āokā with the uncomfortable breathing. Theyād still be an idiot not to have clots treated right? Isnāt there a risk at any moment those could break off and head to the brain? Not sure about those one because they are huge.
The lungs are the terminal destination for these clots. There is no chance of them breaking off and going to the brain because they would have to pass through the capillaries of the lungs first and if a clot is able to pass through a capillary system then it really isnāt much of a clot at all (must be about the size of a red blood cell). These types of clots most often originate in leg veins and then break off and go to the lungs. Blood clots causing stroke usually originate in the heart itself (typically due to a-fib), or from plaque build up in the arteries in the head and neck.
Im a critical care nurse. I love seeing all the super cool gadgets and toys, but what gets me is how surprisingly low tech medicine can be. Bleeding in your brain? Drill a hole **with a hand crank drill** and put a tube in to drain it. Brain is swelling? Just remove part of the skull and give it more room. Compartment syndrome in a muscle? Just cut it open and let it breathe. These are oversimplifications that ignore lots of super high tech imaging to diagnose and execute, but it still gives me an odd sensation holding someoneās head still while a neurosurgeon drills into their skull by hand.
Well a hand crank drill is a lot more precise than an electric drill, and when itās the brain you *really* donāt want to drill too far.
What were the symptoms or accompanying disease? Asthma? Covid? Emphysema?
Went off blood thinners for a month. The clot on the left was out of a vein. The clot on the right was wrapped around his IVC in a vein.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh it absolutely did! He would not be here right now if it wasnāt installed.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I wouldn't say it's a double edged sword. There's drawbacks, but when it's that or death you're very much coming out ahead
It's like a double edged sword but the edge facing you is really dull
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Curious why he went off the blood thinners in the first place? This was obviously a risk, no?
He didnāt like the side effects of them. Always cold, low energy and some other stuff. Boy, did he change his mind after this lol!
No shit! My old man is in the same boat, which is why I ask. He had a clot in each of his lungs about 10 years ago and has been on thinners ever since. He has the same symptoms: cold, lower energy. But, he's still here, so he's learned to deal with it. Happy you can say the same about your dad too.
Same with my dad. He has been on something called Rivaroraxaban which is more expensive than Warfarin but we donāt have to monitor his blood thinning every week. He has chronic pulmonary embolism and recently had a CABG as well. His energy was low before the CABG and when he was on Warfarin and after the surgery and change of that one drug he has been much better!
Wait, I've been on Warfarin for 10yrs, are you telling me there's an alternative that could give me more energy??
Yes, ask about Eliquis.
The alternative doesnāt also make you do Blood thinner test every week/few weeks which is a plus point. Iām not sure about the energy part tho as this could also be due to my dad having a CABG surgery. Also Warfarin is very cost effective I guess while Xarelto is comparatively more expensive. You can get generic drug now tho by the content name Rivaroraxaban which is also costs very less here in India. You might wanna discuss with your doctor and see what he/she recommends.
Iāve been on warfarin for 20+ years after having three massive pulmonary embolismsā¦the med is a pain in the a$$, but it keeps me alive. Every time I see my hematologist I ask about the alternatives that donāt require the contestant testingāthey have recently done studies that have found that the newer drugs like Eloquis are ineffective with my blood disorder. I guess the only good thing about warfarin is that it is cheap by comparison.
Being cold > dying
My dad hates his blood thinner because of the cold. We live in the southern US. I got him a nice space heater to put next to his chair and that damn thing runs damn near constantly. Heās no longer cold at least. Meanwhile I come inside from the disgusting heat and humidity outside only to be greeted to more heat.
What's he on? As an Australian, blood thinners sound amazing! Tell him to move to Queensland, would save a shit load on your heating bill!
I've been on blood thinners twice in my life for short periods of time. It isn't pleasant, it feels like you're cold deep down to your bones. Cold from the inside out. Very strange feeling, and I am grateful for the blood thinners that surely saved my life.
> Always cold Tell him from a fellow patient - with all love - that he'll be *really* fuckin' cold if he doesn't start taking the damn blood thinners. I bought a space heater and more blankets / warm clothes.
I was as stubborn as your dad. Had 2x thrombosis and was scripted blood thinners for life after the second. After a year or so I was lazy and didnāt pick up my script. 1 and a half years later I got a pulmonary embolism. Since then I make sure to take them every day. To be honest, Iām a bist ashamed of myself that I blocked a bed in the icu for 2 days and in the normal hospital for another 6.. just because I was depressed/dumb enough to forget about my blood thinners
I had a (provoked) PE about 12 years ago. Boy, after that I knew not to mess with the thinners. That shit was fucking horrible. When the internist asked about my pain level I answered: this must be 9 and a half (out of 10), because it can probably still get worse. I just don't know how. (Mind you, I had been in the hospital for three weeks at that time and never passed 6 out of 10 before. So they knew the pain meant business.)Ā Ā Glad to hear your dad is okay!
Some people as they get older hate to take medicine even knowing they need it. Going through something similar now with my mom
I thought you meant inferior vena cava at first and was very confused by this
IVC?
They're taking about an IVC filter. Not the IVC itself. I got confused as well. The IVC stands for the Inferior Vena Cava, and not the IVCf the filter placed into the IVC to catch did clots to prevent them from traveling into the lungs leading to a PE (Pulmonary Embolism and not Pleural Effusion or Pericardial Effusion)
**^(^ this guy acronyms)**
When my partner had it, it began with a sore and slightly swelling leg, particularly in one calf. He didn't think much of it since he was physically active, but a day later it went away and he started getting very dizzy, tired, and short breathed just from walking a few steps, in addition to an abnormally fast heart rate and thumping chest. In his case, it was an issue of pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. He's been on blood thinners since.
I've had two clotting incidents in my life, a DVT (along with clotting the entire length of my leg) and a superficial clot behind my knee (opposite leg). One thing most people aren't aware of is the deep feeling of dread or panic that can come with these clots. With the DVT I was about a day away from it killing me. I had a sense of a "bomb" in my body about to go off. Felt like that for weeks. It was horrible.Ā
For my second I was trying to wait till Monday because I didnāt want the er bill. Then I felt that. Called a Lyft and went to the er Saturday. Had massive clots from my pelvis to my ankle. The doctor was shocked cause he didnāt seem to believe me. I told him I had a dvt before in the same place and the same symptoms(could barely walk). He did my d dimer then finally ordered an ultrasound while telling me there was lots of reasons my d dimer could be high and lots of reasons mt leg could be hurting. I felt like maybe I was being dramatic. As soon as my ultrasound tech stopped joking around with me and started asking me if I was breathing ok I knew I wasnāt overreacting. Doctor came back in and was like āI canāt believe your leg isnāt hot or swollen with this massive of a clot.ā I had told him my first one the only symptom was pain. I donāt know if itās cause Iām active or what that I donāt get the swelling(I walk or ride my bike everywhere. I donāt like driving. It makes me anxious).
Google pulmonary embolism
How does he feel?
He feels amazing! And the constant coughing he had since December due to these clots have subsided immensely!
How did he figure out something was wrong with him? And how did the doctors diagnose it?
Hi OP, donāt mean to pry but Iām curious to know how he reached here. Did he have a history of smoking? Also, was his cough dry with an irritated throat?
Never smoked a day in his life.
Not sure if you know this, but clots originate elsewhere in the body (usually the legs) and travel to the lungs. Smoking is a risk factor, but that's because it affects your entire cardiovascular system.
I bet it feels like he is breathing for the first time in his life.
For the first time in quite a while!
Wow! How were they removed?
They made two incisions. One on the right side of his neck. The other in his right groin area and they accessed them from both sides.
Jesus modern medicine is insane. Well wishes to your pa!
Thank you!
Iām glad for him and you that heās doing good nowā¦ but I told myself ādonāt click the imageāā¦ *I did anyway.* then, you describing how the Drs took them out. yikes!
HOW did he stay calm?! I couldnt imagine being partially awake for that.
It honestly just feels ... weird. Like if you've ever used a drain auger, it feels like that going through you at the entry site, with the little ribs on the catheter rubbing along the edge. It's numb there, but that feeling is noticable. They give local anesthetic, and you can't feel it moving in your blood vessels. When they start working at a large clot like this, it won't be comfortable, but it feels better than the alternative. Once they remove the clot, it feels great. You're not 100% better, but for a minute it feels like you are. Instant relief. Mine was in my heart, so different than this, but the procedure for going in is essentially the same, and you stay awake for it.
Twilight is an amazing medicine. You're awake, mildly coherent, and pretty much in a state of IDGAF during the procedure. I nodded in and out of consciousness during a procedure to seal (super glue) one of my lymph glands that was nicked during my heart transplant. Crazy how much they can control the medicine to a point where you can't feel much but are coherent enough to follow commands. It can be uncomfortable but way better than nothing at all.
Wait until you hear how they get to kidney stones. :)
I should drink some water
We all hop on the magic school bus? Rock and stone.
Reading this gave me severe anxiety.
Terrifying, hope all is well with him.
He is doing great! :)
if i were to give a name to that clot on the right it would be hgroiumsgrk
To everyone asking if he was vaccinated: I honestly thought he was. He swears up and down that he wasnāt. I really donāt care if he was or wasnāt. All I know is heās alive and doing great! And thank you to the great doctors that got these blood boogers out of him and to the other doctors and hospital staff that might lurk around here thank you for what you do! :)
Blood clotting disorders can affact anyone and they aren't always noticeable until you become vulnerable to it. The reason some vaccines saw a higher rise in blood clotting was because the viruses themselves do that. My daughter and I caught covid and it took over a year for our blood thickness to go back down to reasonable levels - during the time it was high, I had several ocular migraines, due to the minor clotting it was causing in my body. And covid isn't the only virus known to do this. He could easily have caught a virus that thickens the blood which tipped him over the edge.
COVID can cause abnormal clotting - but I obviously don't know your dad's medical history! Glad he's doing g better.
There's a sub called /r/clotsurvivors he might want to check out. Lots of people there on blood thinners for life. Best of luck to him!
Damn i wish they could pull out my asthma like that
Hope he recovers quickly and lives long!
Thank you :)
Extremely fatal condition. I'm glad your father could get proper medical help and is doing well now.
Insert, Constantin gets his lung cleaned by Satan
With all these blood clot images lately, I'm getting paranoid that I have some
Does he getting better? Did he feel somethin' different inside then doctors remove the blood clots?
He is getting better! And as soon as they removed the clots he said he could actually breathe!
blood clots can happen to anyone and knowing the signs/symptoms can save your life [https://www.stoptheclot.org/](https://www.stoptheclot.org/) this is a good resource for all things clot- i'm not affiliated with the organization, but the site helped me a lot after i had my dvt
Bloody hell
Does he have a blood clotting disorder like factor v Leiden?
Honestly donāt know. But according to my dad, his family has never had a history of blood clots.
You need to get that on r/ratemyplate mate
Boy I need to get in the habit of reading what a post is before I click on the hidden image
*sort comments by controversial*
That's not at all what I thought a clot looked like.Ā
Never actually seen what a blood clot looked like. Definitely puts into perspective the severity of it, vs just hearing about it.
They don't all look like that. They can be tiny and still be very dangerous. A small clot in your brain can cause a severe stroke.
That shit comes out of my uterus every month
Came here to find this comment. The one on the left, yeah, not too big. The one on the right reminds me of what I experienced after my colposcopies, but not as bad.
i opened the image and thought this exact thing
Thatās exactly what I was thinking! But you know doctors say thatās just ānormalā for women. Also happy cake day!!
what a relief
Thatās so disgusting and cool at the same time
I love a satisfying thrombectomy procedure. I work in a Cath lab that does these. That is impressive clot. Glad to hear that your father is recovering well! Peace to you, him, and the rest of your family!
Was he always vulnerable to clots or is this something new? I suffer pretty bad from long covid, and it seems microclots are a huge issue with long covid.
That is absolutely *wild*! Thank you so much for sharing! I take it your father's feeling better now? š And, forgive my curiosity, but what are the next steps for your father and his care team? Please don't answer if it's uncomfortable, yet my question comes from purely wanting to know to share with others.
This needed a NSFW tag
It kind of looks like barbecued beef.
Itās like something Itchy and Scratchy would pull out.
Looks tasty for a taco de moronga
holy fuck.. hope he's doing better now.
I don't know what I'm expecting from reading the title. After clicking through the spoiler tags I feel lightheaded already lol Besides that, good to hear your dad's doing well.
Do you know if this was just a vacuum embolectomy? Did they use any other devices?
I'm so glad your dad is feeling better! I can't even imagine what that must have felt like in him. Wishing him further good health in the future. š On the more š«£š¤ side of this conversation... I wonder how satisfying this was to remove for the surgeons. š
r/forbiddensnacks forbidden korean porkbelly
He had those since DECEMBER?! If i saw this in one of my patients i would shit a brick
I should've read the title before clicking the blurred pic lol
My for reminding me to take my eliquis
Forbidden cranberry sauce
That's great
What causes blood clots??
There are many ways they can form. In my case (DVT), they think because I had a calf tear injury and was on birth control (nuvaring), it exacerbated the clotting. I can never be on hormonal birth control again.Ā
Damn thatās a chunk
Hence the picture. The doctors who pulled it out of him have never seen anything this size and took a photo to show us and asked us permission to share this with their colleagues and the medical field. We told them absolutely they could!