I've got you under my skin
I've got you deep in the heart of me
So deep in my heart, that you're really a part of me
I've got you under my skin
I almost died last week. Again.
It’s possible, since you are a friend of mine living a similar lifestyle, that you may have too. The difference is, I know now.
Read this so you will know too. Five minutes could save you 50 years. Seriously.
Ironically, after a lifetime of extremist adventuring and countless near-death experiences, what nearly did me in was ten hours of relaxing, watching movies, sipping wine and enjoying a nice dinner. I didn’t even have dessert.
I boarded the plane in Buenos Aires after a recent horseback adventure, blissfully ignorant of the blood clot that had formed in my left calf. Little did I know that if this homicidal little hitch-hiker came loose and lodged in my brain or lungs it could leave me, like thousands before, dead in a matter of minutes.
I’d heard of people who developed blood clots during extended travel.
Besides how could I get ‘Economy-class Syndrome’? I was flying Business.
He’s so vein….
In my last blog I wrote how I returned from my gaucho experience in Uruguay with my adventure pal Stephen Meyers and within a day fervently got right back into climbing, extolling the virtues of a life fully-lived. What I did not mention was the growing pain in my calf. A muscle strain, I told myself. I treated it with warmth and massage. And I kept on climbing.
A few days later the kids and Kate and I headed out on our Semi-Annual Salz Family Southwest Camping and Road Trip. We alternated days of marathon driving with miles of hiking and scrambling up sandstone formations. Limping from the pain and curiously expanding numbness, I stoically bit my lip and dragged one leg behind me. We were, after all, making memories. Somewhere along the way Kate noticed my left calf had swollen to the general size, shape and hardness of a large bowling pin. “Oh, it is nothing,” said I. “I’ll get a someone to look at it when we get to back to civilization.” In Durango Colorado I found a massage therapist who reckoned it was a spider bite and proceeded to pummel it hard with her hands.
That night Kate insisted we call a few friends who are in the medical profession.Their unanimous opinion: “Get thee to an ER. Now”. Grumbling and complaining - leaving Kate and kids in the hotel room in the middle of the night - I trundled off.
It was my first time as a patient in an ER. As I sat on the hospital bed beneath the bright lights (my backless hospital gown affording an experience of freedom I had never before known!) the young doctor on duty had some sobering news:
Dude, you have a DVT.
A what? I asked
DVT. A blood clot. Man, you are lucky to be here. That’s the good news. The bad news? Your life is not going to be the same for quite awhile."
Apparently, up to this point, I had been a casebook study on doing every single thing I should not have. It was damn amazing I wasn’t dead yet.
Dr. Stanley Mohler, Director of Aerospace Medicine at Wright State Medical School, calls DVT the Stealth Disease because often there are no symptoms until several days after the flight and the victim has no idea what is wrong. DVT is usually mistaken for a cramp, even when the victim is a physician. Correct diagnosis and treatment is usually delayed, aggravating the injury and increasing the risk of permanent vein damage and further injury or death when a clot travels to the lungs, brain, or heart.
-from airhealth.com
|
Dummies Guide on How to Drop Dead:
Fun Facts on Fatalities in Fit Frequent Fliers
Up to two million Americans suffer from deep vein thrombosis (DVT) annually. Approximately 300,000 die when loosened clots lodge in the lungs and cause pulmonary embolisms (PE).In fact, more people die in the United States from DVT complications than breast cancer and AIDS combined. It is arguably the most common preventable cause of hospital death in the United States.
Even if you survive, the fun may just be beginning. Studies show that forty to eighty percent of DVT victims develop what is known as Post Thrombotic Syndrome with chronic swelling, numbness and pain, sometimes with open sores that can cover the lower leg.
While two thirds of DVT cases occur in hospitalized patients, it appears that most of the final third are deaths related to air travel.
And who is at most risk in the air? If you are somewhat athletic and a frequent flier, the answer is YOU.
I have seen figures as high as 100,000 deaths per year from air-travel-related DVTs, making long plane flights a high-risk activity for the even the healthiest person. In fact, indeed it is the healthiest people who are most at risk. About 85% of air travel thrombosis victims are athletic, usually endurance-type athletes like marathoners, cyclists, skate and snow boarders and climbers. Athletes' slow resting heart rates result in slower-moving blood through the veins which can lead to pooling. Also, they are more likely to have recent bruises and sore muscles that trigger clotting. Combine this with low cabin oxygen pressure, dehydration and cramped seating quarters, the risk of clots becomes considerable.
Age over 60 has long been supposed to be a the primary risk factor, but from what I’ve been reading, these athlete-victims are younger. 82% of air-travel-related DVT victims are under 60. The majority are under 50.
David Bloom was 39 years and in great shape. An NBC journalist embedded with the troops in Iraq, he died from A DVT without warning after sleeping and traveling in a cramped vehicle. I recently read of a ten year old girl developing a DVT on a flight to Hong Kong.
I’m pretty sure I know how I got mine.
That last day’s long ride was a long one. How long? Our amazing Uruguayan horses trotted at least as fast as the average horse (between 8-10 miles an hour). Stephen and I rode about eight hours, trotting at least half of those. YOU do the math. It was an arduous and physically brutalizing day.
Even this wannabe gaucho has to admit I was pretty banged up as I climbed aboard the plane from Buenos Aires settling in for a ten hour flight. Did I eschew the fine Argentine Malbec and drink water instead? Did I crawl over a sleeping seatmate to get up and exercise my limbs every couple of hours? Of course not.
I mean who knew?
Now you and I both know.
DVTs are unusual and they do happen to unusual people. Those unusual people just happen to be us.
Discovering the Gift in All Things
So what’s my story now? It will be a couple of weeks before I break out my climbing shoes, but research shows that conscious exercise and a healthy diet are the best ways to speed recovery. Like it or not, my life will be improving on that front. I gave one of my favorite talks of my career two days ago in Las Vegas. Seems I’m more inspired than ever. There is nothing like a reminder of our own mortality to make every moment that much richer. I’m enjoying my work, savoring beauty, appreciating my friends and loving my family more than ever.
My world is getting better in other areas, too.
Since I’m now taking the same blood thinners as my 91 year old dad, we have something we can talk about on the phone. Something we share. I’ve let him know I understand now how heroic he has been, never letting the relentless insults his body has suffered over the years diminish his spirit.
Replacing the judgment I once held for those less physically gifted is a sense of growing compassion. This is the great blessing of illness. Only when we cease to attach our happiness to our physical reality do we stand a chance of finding lasting joy, especially in the latter half of our lives.
I see more clearly than ever:
We are not our bodies.
We are every body.
Just yesterday I was headed into the health food store when I noticed an old fellow shuffling along ahead of me. Hanging on to the shopping cart for dear life far more than pushing it, he struggled to propel himself on spindly legs wrapped in bandages. His body was a mess. There were visible sores on his elbows and head, behind his ears too.
My first reaction was to recoil and distance myself. But at the same time I felt a new sense of connection, of camaraderie. Hobbling along, I too was now one of the walking wounded. No longer could I to cling to any illusory notions of perfect health and superiority.
I don’t know who started it, but as I passed by, we stopped, faced each other – what beautiful face! - and shared a deep smile.
Take care and remember:
Better not to have died in vein….
In fact, better not to have died at all.
Live it…
Lovingly!
Jeff
Jeff Salz, Ph.D– adventurer, anthropologist and speaker– averages over 100,000 air miles every year. This is his first DVT. Hopefully, it is also his last. Learn more about Jeff’s adventures at www.wayofadventure.com or contact him directly at: jeffsalz@earthlink.net
Learn more about DVT - and its prevention - by visiting these sites:
ABCs of DVT and PE:
http://www.vtsports.com/magazine/content.cfm?storyID=105
Info on all things DVT, including a printable, wallet size pamphlet on Avoiding Air Travel Thrombosis
www.airhealth.org
Blood Clot and the Endurance Athlete
http://tsvnews.blogspot.com/2005/10/blood-clots-and-endurance-athlete-by.html
Airplane Yoga to Prevent DVTs
http://www.mindbodysoul.tv/episodes/episode-twenty-three/yoga-for-dvt/
Flight Tabs:
www.naturalhealthconsult.com
I’ve not read about this many places, but an American Journal of Critical Care article sited the efficacy of a product calledFlight Tabsfor vein health and reduced swelling. Flite Tabs contain an all-natural mixture made from fermented soy and pine bark extract and can be ordered from a number of places.
Circulate ! (pun intended)
|
