Hey everyone,
I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with everyone what happened to me last year that all Thal Majors (and anyone for that matter) should look out for in regards to Pulmonary embolysms/blood clots.
In July last year I noticed that my breathing was a lot heavier than normal, I do have asthma and was going through a stressful period in my life and thought it was just because I was run down etc etc. A couple of weeks of this passed and it wasn't getting any better, along with the heavy breathing I started to get sharp pains in my upper back. Anyone that has had a bad chest infection or has had pleurisy (inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the lung), the pain was similar. I had pleurisy the year before so stupidy assumed that it was another case of it. Strangely though I didn't have any signs of a flu or virus or infection which can cause pleurisy.
It just so happened that I had a check up with my Thal specialist that week, I explained my symptoms, he did a quick check of my chest and rushed me to get an xray and a lung function test. The xrays showed 5 large blood clots in my lungs, some of which had been there for months and months!!!!! Ahhh!!
I was immediatley admitted into hospital where i was put on heparin through a drip to thin my blood and the clots. I was also put on the blood thinner warfrin. I stayed in hospital for a week and recently just got off the warfrin tablets (was on them for 6 months as a preventative).
My Thal specialist explained that Thal Majors are more susceptible to PEs/blood clots, however, my blood clots could be non-Thal related. I'm currently having tests to find out what caused them, it could purely be because I was on the pill and the estrogen in the pill increases the chances of clots.
Ok i've basically written an esssay! Sorry about that! But my point is to make Thals aware of the symptoms of blood clots so you can catch them, if left untreated clots can travel to the heart and can be fatal.
Sometimes the constant monitoring of my health is mundane and annoying, but my blood clot incident reminds me how important self-monitoring is!!
take care everyone
marisa x ![:wink](http://www.thalassemiapatientsandfriends.com/Smileys/classic/Winkk.gif)