just new here

Good morning all,

First of all let me tell you that I found this site by floundering around the internet trying to find info. on superior Mesenteric thrombosis. The stuff I did find wasn't encouraging, so I had hoped to find someone just like me, who has SMT. didn't expect to find too much though, until I accidentally fell into this forum.

My story is this:
My name is Mary
I am 61
I live near Ottawa
Have 7 grand children and 4 great grand children
I hope to dance at all of their weddings.


June 4th of this year(2009) I had pains for 4 days before finally giving into seeing my doctor. My husband has had many bouts with kidney stones, my sympthoms were much the same as his, so I thought it was my turn to have a kidney stone and it would go away soon. ( never assume that you know the problem yourself).

My doctor ordered an abdominal scan to be done, but they couldnt possibly fit me in for another 2 weeks.
I ended up in emerg, that night and after another 29 hour and an abdominal scan I was diagnosed with Superior Mesenteric Thromboises. It took me another 5 days in the hospital before I could even pronounce it. I am just beginning to grasp the enorminity of DVT. Until June 4th I had'nt heard the word . Now I am learning a whole new vocabulary, one i wish I didn't have to learn , but I do and that is all there is to it. I am a need to know person and I will find everything I can on DVT. I am sincerely happy to find others just like me.

I love my family with my whole heart and soul, but none of them have DVT and there fore they just let me talk their ears off without knowing what is really going on here. I apprreaciate their efforts very much, but it will be great to chat with other people who are also DVT survivors.

Cheers,
Mary[left]

Hi Mary,

Welcome! Sad to know what led to you being here, but happy you found us!

Would you mind sharing details of your symptoms for Mesenteric Thrombosis? (i.e. where exactly was the pain, etc.?) I think it would be great awareness/education for those of us who do not have it. (I had leg DVT and a small PE.)

You will find on the home page that Denis (Dero) does have a section for Mesenteric Thrombosis with some links. He may also know off the top of his head others in the forum who share this experience. This is a great support site that he has put together. Much work has gone into it and I'm so grateful he has put this all together for us!

As for me, you can see my story in the Lounge, "DVT Diaries from Van.".

I also run a local live support group here in BC (online members can be from anywhere though): http://www.meetup.com/DVT-Support-Group-of-the-Lower-Mainland/ It's small at the moment... still in the new stages.

There's a ton of resources here, and I also share a lot of resource links on my site, that you may be interested in. (I'm a need-to-know person too!) http://www.meetup.com/DVT-Support-Group-of-the-Lower-Mainland/pages/RESOURCES_TO_RECOMMEND/ And I welcome any resource link suggestions that pertain especially to Mesenteric Thrombosis. I figure the more information shared, for awareness and education, the better.

I hope you are feeling better and are well on your way to recovery. You are so right... the phrase "just beginning to grasp the enormity of DVT" sure fits what I'm sure most of us here grappled with in the beginning. The potentiality of DVT in the beginning was scary for me, and was really just shocked. I had never heard of it prior. We all seem to go through a bit of an emotional roller coaster with it, and it's challenging when others around us simply can't understand or relate to what we're going through.... physical, mentally, emotionally. That's why I was so glad to have found this place at the beginning of my search. It really helped me through the tough spot at the beginning, and I made some great friends here!

Have a super day Mary. So glad you're here and look forward to chatting.
Brenda

Hi Mary,

As I am happy that you found LADVT it saddens me to hear about your DVT.
Welcome to Life After DVT, it does exist... You may not think of it this way NOW, but it will get better.
Yes, most of the members here are people with that same "NEED TO KNOW", we are realising that many Dr. out there do not own that quality. So, WE as DVT survivors have to educate ourselves and this site is one of the results, a big library strickly on DVT, just for us...
You and I are fortunate to be patients at the TAT Unit, like I always say, it has to be one of the finest in the Canada, many of their Dr. are of international reputation in the field of Thrombophilia.

We had a member here that also had SMT, I can remember talking with her about it , since it was totally unknown to me, I will kep on searching to find out who it was and try to get in touch with her(I think it was a woman).
If you have ANY questions, please ask and we will try to answer it...

Talk to you soon,
Denis

Mary Rocks wrote:

Good morning all,
.......
..
I ended up in emerg, that night and after another 29 hour and an abdominal scan I was diagnosed with Superior Mesenteric Thromboises. It took me another 5 days in the hospital before I could even pronounce it. I am just beginning to grasp the enorminity of DVT. Until June 4th I had'nt heard the word . Now I am learning a whole new vocabulary, one i wish I didn't have to learn , but I do and that is all there is to it. I am a need to know person and I will find everything I can on DVT. I am sincerely happy to find others just like me.

I love my family with my whole heart and soul, but none of them have DVT and there fore they just let me talk their ears off without knowing what is really going on here. I apprreaciate their efforts very much, but it will be great to chat with other people who are also DVT survivors.

Cheers,
Mary[left]

Hi Mary,

Denis remembered me and asked me to chime in, although I have not checked this forum for a long time. Your story could almost be mine, just one year ago. I felt ill on June 1, wandered around our local health care system for a week, wound up in the ER where they did a CT Scan and next thing I know I was in an ambulance on the way to a hospital in a larger town nearby.

It can be scary, and it can feel wretched. My story - healthy, never sick, no real family history of blood clots except in relatives who are now dead but lived into their 80's. At the time I became ill, I was physically active, normal weight, low blood pressure, and 48. I rode horses and did yoga regularly.

Long story short - after 1 year of coumadin therapy, shooting for a fairly high INR of 3.0, I'm off the stuff and unless I have further problems, the doc just told me to take an aspirin every day. I'm riding horses, doing yoga, and swimming - doing all pretty regularly.

It took me about 3 or 4 months to start feeling pretty decent again, and maybe a couple more until I really felt normal. I had a setback in July, spent one night in a local hospital and put it down to panic plus some remnant infection. I don't think I have any residual problems that I know of. I did lose some weight, and since I actually wanted to, it was okay and I've managed to keep most of it off. Not really the way I wanted to lose weight, but whatever - at least I'm alive. I fortunately never needed surgery, and they never really found a cause, other than I do have a couple of genetic factors that just must have felt like getting crossways one day. My surgeon I consulted with said it's surprising that not more people have this problem, since the mesenteric veins are pretty sluggish anyway.

If you have any questions, you might email me directly, since I seldom check this forum anymore. You can find me at minnm2002 at yahoo dot com. Oh, and don't let all that stuff you read on the internet scare you to death! It can if you read too much!

Thank you very much Martha, really appreciate the help,
So Mary, that's minnm2002@yahoo.com

Glad to hear you are doing well Martha.