Word of Caution for those who fly a lot

[Alphawolf]

I know some of you here fly long flights sorta often...

I ended up having deep vein thrombosis from my flight back home from Thailand (at least that was a large part of it) which, in turn caused blood clots...

http://ohp.nasa.gov/alerts/dvt.html

...And it DID go to my lungs causing a Pulmonary Embolism.

Ironically, people who are is good shape are *more* at risk:

http://www.airhealth.org/athletes.html

I woke up Thanksgiving day with what felt like a massive muscle pull on my right side. I didn't realize it was a blood clot in my right lung.

I finally went to the ER after I woke up 7 days later and my upper body was fine, but my leg was nearly paralyzed. I was in the hospital 8 DAYS. :-(

Man, did that suck. Now I must take blood thinning medicine for 3 months and get another CAT SCAN in 12 weeks to see if the clots have healed.

I was in pretty good shape weighing in the high 180's, OK shape- now 174lbs of flab. But at least I am living.

Not an "older person" thing either as I'll be just 33 in March.

In general, I don't feel the flight alone would have done it as I have 71,000 miles on Northwest airlines. It was a series of things...

I ended up getting hit with a wicked virus that kept me in bed muscles aching for 5 days before I had to fly home. During the flight, I just didn't move as much as I usually would.

My risk factors are high as blod clots run in the family and I had cancer 10 years ago. Adding into that the fact I just laid in bed 5 days prior to flight and didn't move coming back- boom.

Jim, from the radio show I know you don't like people whining, this is more or less a PSA.