Sunday, 29 March 2015

6 years on - more trouble



I've already posted most of this elsewhere, but it seems to make sense to bring it all here, onto my "health" blog.

17th February 2015:
Noticed a red lump on my leg at the weekend.
Sore, when prodded, and hard to the touch.
Hmm.

Anyway, saw the doctor this afternoon.
Preliminary diagnosis is ...
not that dramatic, really.
I'm just trying to build up a bit of suspense.
Preliminary diagnosis is Superficial Thrombophlebitis.

Remember the old "rule of thumb"?
The longer the name, the less serious it is :-)

The Chronicles of the Yellow Books

My little yellow books are interesting souvenirs that contain a slice of my life for the past 6 or so years.
This is the tale they tell so far:

Monday, 16 March 2015

My Little Yellow Book

Hi.
I have one of those little yellow books that they give to folks with blood problems in the UK.
Actually, I'm on my second.
My little yellow books
This blog is where I am going to put my "health" stuff, so that folks that want to read it in detail can do so, and other folks can just skip the occasional link I will be embedding elsewhere.

Short potted history:
I was admitted to the hospital in 2009 with both a DVT and a PE (both count as VTE!).
No particular reason was found.
A couple of weeks later I had a terrible pain in my upper leg, which turned out to be multiple further clots.
So after all that was sorted out, I was "in the clear" ...

Almost 6 years later, I had a bump on my leg.
The local doctor said it is a Superficial Thromboembolism (a small blood clot in one of the minor veins - not in itself particularly serious, but such things can, apparently, be a marker for underlying problems.
I was referred to the hospital again, and sure enough, I have a multiple DVT in my lower leg again.
A CT scan was next, and I am currently waiting to see the "blood expert" at the hospital - my appointment is at the end of the month.

For almost 6 years, I had a target INR range of 2 to 3, but that has been put up to 3 to 4. Higher is more effective, but increases the side effects (stuff like bruising, for example).

Anyway, that's me.
I'll be covering more specific issues and more detail in future posts, both of my own condition, and of the "general theory and practice" - I've learnt quite a bit about all this stuff that I wish I had known "at the start", so I thought I'd share it with you!