BLOOD CLOTS
#2 AND #3
Volume 1 / Issue 1
HOW DO WE GET BLOOD CLOTS?
Diagnoses According to stoptheclot, 100,000-300,000 people are diagnosed with blood clots.
Blood clots form in a step to step system. When a blood vessel is damaged in our bodies, platelets in our bodies stick to the walls of the blood vessel causing a wound to stop healing. In this process the platelets cause collision of red blood cells, making it hard for blood vessel to pump the blood through. The blood clot then grows while it is in the same area.
Causes of blood clots
A high number of people receive diagnoses through child birth or pre injury. People of all ages are diagnosed with a blood clot. These can happen to anyone
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Causes of blood clots may include: certain heart conditions, pregnancy, prolonged immobility, smoking, certain medications, surgery, and Inherited blood clotting disorders.
at any given time. Q: What can I do to stop a blood clot? A: -Wear loose fitted clothing, socks, or stockings. -Raise your legs 6 inches above your heart from time to time. -Ask your doctor for more procedures or exercises to do. -Eat less salty foods or drinks. -Try not to bump your legs or cross them. -Do not put pillows under your legs while you sleep. -Use medication the doctor prescribes you.
This Picture shows tubes of an artery and red blood cells clotting together.
Q: Should I thin out my blood if I have blood clots? A: It is a good idea to take medicines doctor prescribes you for blood clotting. Using blood thinners will decrease the chance to get blood clots, but will not make that percentage a 0% chance. .
“I've had five or six concussions, with three serious ones. I also got a real heavy duty blood clot and internal bleeding from where I was shot in the stomach with a beanbag bullet that the police use for crowd control.” –Johnny Knoxville
Medication and treatments for blood clots BLOOD THINNNERS Anticogulants or (Blood thinners) are medications that reduce the size of red blood cells are platelets in the blood vessel allowing the flow of blood throught the body. These medications are not all 100% accurate sometimes they work sometimes they do not, it all recollects on how the body uses the medication treatment. MEDICATIONS FOR BLOOD CLOTS -Warfarin (Coumadin®) -Heparin, dalteparin (Fragmin®) and enoxaparin (Lovenox®), also known as LMWH
PILL FORMULA ALL ARTERIES AND VEINS ADVANTAGES TO WARFARIN AND HEPARIN • • •
LMWH is given by injection under the skin rather than by IV, so you can treat yourself at home more easily. LMWH eliminates or reduces the time you need to spend in the hospital to treat a clot. If you take LMWH, you usually do not have to have blood tests to monitor it. • Warfarin is inexpensive. • Warfarin is a pill. • Warfarin is familiar to doctors because it has been used to treat patients since the 1950’s.
Clots can break off from a DVT and travel to the lung, causing a pulmonary embolism (PE), which can be fatal. The signs and symptoms of a PE include: • • • •
Sudden shortness of breath Chest pain-sharp, stabbing; may get worse with deep breath Rapid heart rate Unexplained cough, sometimes with bloody mucus
Near death experience with NBA superstar Chris Bosh- by Lee Jenkins (Sports Illustrated) Doctors finally diagnosed blood clots on one of his lungs, which most likely originated from a left-calf contusion two months earlier. When he shared the news with his wife, Adrienne, she did a quick Internet search on his condition. The first item that popped up was an article about former Trail Blazers forward Jerome Kersey, who died the day before of a blood clot that traveled from his left calf to his lung. For the first 36 hours in the hospital Bosh feared for his life, until doctors were able to assure him that the blood thinners they administered were working. For the next six days he feared for his career. Bosh already knew his season was over, but he still had to wait for test results that would show whether his condition was hereditary, and therefore likely to recur. “If those tests came back positive,” the 31-yearold Bosh says, “I couldn’t play anymore. For almost a week I didn’t know.” He told himself he would be fine regardless. He had his wife, his three children and his many passions. I’ll get through it, he thought. There’s more to life than basketball. Then, as the days wore on, he became less convinced. “There’s a reason all these guys who retire go crazy. It doesn’t matter how big
your house is. You have to get out of there—coding isn’t doing the trick.” He watched Heat games on his iPad and yelled at the screen as if he were stationed on the back line. “Double him! Rotate! Get a stop!” He remembered the times he had complained about role changes, ankle tweaks, and extra drills. “That’s all I could think about,” Bosh says. “I felt guilty.”
Conclusion If blood clots are not treated as soon as you find out you are diagnosed with one. If this does not occur at the time of diagnoses, complications with body will occur. Blood clots are serious and should not be looked at as a temporary problem, this is a permanent problem and will result in more injury or even death if there is no treatment taken. •
Again Very important, no treatment equals: Sudden cough, which may be bloody Rapid breathing or sudden shortness of breath, even while resting Chest pain: sharp or stabbing, burning, aching, or dull (might get worse with deep breaths, coughing, eating, or bending) Sudden rapid heart rate Irregular heartbeat (Heart palpitations) Heart failure, when your heart can't keep up with the body's demands Trouble breathing High blood pressure in the lung arteries, called pulmonary hypertension (And many more complications)
WORKS CITED www.Sportsillustrated.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.si.com/nba/2015/09/23/chris-bosh-heat-raptorsgeorgia-tech-health-blood-clots-lebron-james www.stoptheclot.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.stoptheclot.org/learn_more/blood_clot_symptoms__dvt.htm www.webmd.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from Blood clots: http://www.webmd.com/dvt/deep-vein-thrombosis-complications
