Introducing myself

Hi, I am 40 years old and 3 weeks ago I was admitted to hospital with bilateral DVT AND bilateral pulmonary emboli. Thankfully, as you can see, I survived to write this post

I had no previous history of any DVTs or similar problems although I have a hectic work life that includes a lot of air travel. Having spent a week in hospital I am now being managed by my Dr at home. I had 2 weeks of injections and warfarin (same as coumadin in US I think) and now I am on just warfarin but still trying to get my INR to the target level which is 3.0-3.5 for me.

Next week I have a repeat doppler/ultrasound scan to see what the score is regarding the DVTs and how stable they are.

I have been told I will be off work for at least 3 months and will need to be on warfarin for 6 months but that may be a year.

In 6 months time I will have to come off the warfarin for 3 weeks and then the Drs will run all sorts of tests for thrombophilia and will then decide whether this was a one off unlucky incident or whether I have some predisposing factor in my blood.

This is all very, very new to me and although I'm so relieved to have made it this far I feel as if I've got through the last few weeks on nerves and adrenaline. Now I'm starting to think about the more long term implications and am finding out that it is difficult to get good advice or an insight into this, especially information that I can use to determine how much risk I'm taking by continuing my current work and regular flights etc.

I think this forum will be very helpful for people like myself. For instance, one of things that I'm trying to do at the moment is buy a pair of full length TED stockings. The hospital only gave me 1 pair and that isn't too good for 6 months! I thought our big high street Boots the chemist would stock or be able to get but they only do the knee high ones. Is there anyone from the UK who can point me to a supplier?

I'm looking forward to meeting you virtually on this forum in the next few months.

Take care.
ergomaniac

I think we all understand what you mean by "I survived to write this post " been there, done that. Ergo, I'm verry happy to see that you made it to "Life After DVT".
It still amazes me the ammount of people that get told that they have DVT and that the doctors don't know WHY. Are'nt we special?
Yes I'm being sarcastic (sorry).
Coumadin and warfarin are the same, but soon to be replace( I hope) by kinder, softer drugs for us long term users or liffers. I hope for you, that you can do your six months (anticoagulants) and be done with it.
Out of curiosity, what kind of work do you do?
I, also am very new to all of this (was diagnosed with idiopathic DVT in July 2007) but since I could not sit around and be ignorant about something that could had kill me, all my findings are here for newly diagnosed patients like you to benefit from. We are slowly starting to gather some specialist from various aspect of thrombophilia that we can all benefit from their experiences.If you have any links to sites or forums that think would help others, don't be shy, send them to me or admin (via PM) so that we can post them in the link forum.
I will check what I have as links to compression socks in the UK...

Talk to you soon, I hope.
dero

Thought I'd add an update on how things have been going. Yipee I am now in my INR therapeutic range of 3.0-3.5. Last blood result last night was 3.2 so slap bang in the middle so I'm sticking with alternating days of 7mg and 8mg warfarin. Have a doppler/ultrasound scan tomorrow to see how things are going on the DVT front and if they are stable or not. Have had a cold this week, last thing I need and have been feeling pretty rotten and very tired but not sure how much is the cold and how much is the DVTs/PEs. I'll add an update after I've had the scan tomorrow.

ergomaniac

My English language is not good as you because I am Arabic but I will try to explain to you my status.

My name is Yaser I am from Saudi Arabia and I have same as you DVT in my both legs since 2005 I am 31 years old until now I am on warfrine 7.5mg daily I did many Doppler & I did many tests to find the main cause of DVT and why it came in both legs however the 1st time it came on me left then after one year it came to the right one.

I will appreciate if you tell me what I have to do if you want me to send you my email I will

Thanks

Yaser

Hello

I got my DVT after a bad slip on ice and nearly broke my ankle.I went back to the hospital few days later as my calf was in alot of pain.They sent me for an ultrasound the next day and discovered the blood clot in my calf.I than spent one week of injecting needle in my stomach along with the warfarin pills.The past 10 weeks have been a real rollar coaster,trying to go to physio for my ankle and dealing the the mental aspect of it all.At this point i am down to using 1 crutch for limited time until leg starts hurting.And my work has been there for me for the most part.At this stage i am doing few hrs a day and on stdHere in calgary after the Anti Coul clinic has your INR where they want it,it than is under Drs care.I met dero through another site and he has been quite helping in answering questions for me.