ER -- August 3, 2015
On Monday, July 29, 2015 I boarded a flight for Boise, Idaho. I had a day and a half of wonderful presentations to do at public libraries in Meridian and Ada, Idaho and I was excited to make them. I buckled my seatbelt as I’ve done more than 30 times during the recent school year, drank a glass of ice water and prepared to deplane.
I walked down the jet bridge and noticed I could hardly breathe. I wrote it off as being a consequence of too much extra weight, until I had to sit down in the chair closest the jet bridge to try and catch my breath. My face must have registered panic, because a young airport employee offered to get me a wheel chair and I enthusiastically accepted.
Laurie, the librarian waiting in baggage claim held a sign with my name on it, but her mouth fell open as I was wheeled to her side. I felt the same. I had no idea how I’d work when I could hardly take a dozen steps without the sensation of drowning. But I am a pro. I would find a way, and I did.
For two days, we arrived at my presentation appointments early. I had half an hour to bring my pulse rate down – my breath in check. I talked to the kids sitting down and we had a great time. The librarians said I did a great job. But I felt as if I’d failed them.
I boarded my return flight July 29 in a wheel chair – and a chair was waiting for me in Spokane. My daughter Vanessa was deeply concerned when I explained. I told her it was just bronchitis but I promised I’d see a doctor on Monday, August 3 – after I finished my third novel for Lerner. The novel went untouched. I slept through the next few days -- exhausted, weak, nearly mindless.
The walk in clinic sent me straight to the emergency room. After a CT Scan, blood work and a review of my school year travel habits, the diagnosis was clear -- deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms. Dehydration and inactivity on flights had caused blood clots to form in my legs. Those clots – lots of them -- had settled in both of my lungs.
Had I waited to seek help, I would have died, as have 100,000 Americans every calendar year. Turns out DVT PE is a very real, very serious problem – a problem that is easily avoided.
How? Take a few simple steps if you travel as often as I do – or even if you don’t.
1. Wear compression socks. I tried the thigh highs and tossed them out. Skip the thigh highs, and go for the socks that stop at the knee. Compression footware helps prevent swelling that causes the blood to clot and become trapped in your swollen feet and ankles.
2. Take two aspirin on travel days. Aspirin is a natural blood thinner and helps keep the blood from pooling and thickening in your legs to form clots.
3. Drink lots of water as you travel. Notice I said LOTS of water, not LOTS of cola or alcohol. Water is the magic element when it comes to protecting yourself from DVT PE. It keeps your blood flowing more efficiently, so drink a LOT, even if it means more trips to the bathroom.
4. Take a walk or two or three – in the plane. I know it annoys your fellow travelers, but I no longer care. If I can tolerate some man’s privates in my face while he stows his carry on, other people can tolerate my preventative strolls.
5. Watch that swelling in your legs. If it’s excessive or accompanied by extreme pain, what looks like bruising or heightened redness, see it as a red flag and SEE YOUR DOCTOR. Fixing it before it’s taken root is a lot easier than fixing it after the blood clots line your lungs or worse, travel to your heart or brain.
I did not follow these five steps because I didn’t know the dangerous potential. I’d heard that NBC journalist David Bloom had died suddenly of DVT PE in , but he was entrenched with tanks in Iraq – hot, dry, 12 hours without walking. That wasn’t my lifestyle – except it was, for all intents and purposes. Excessive travel replicates the same issues that took David Bloom and 100,000 people each year.
Was it my weight? No. Being overweight doesn’t help, but it didn’t CAUSE the problem. Sitting for hours at a time in a state of dehydration caused it. And that can be avoided.
By the way, I was oxygen deprived because of the breathing difficulty – short of breath. But there was more to the disruption. If you can’t get air IN, you can’t get carbon dioxide OUT. So my muscles and internal organs were also in a highly toxic state -- poisoned. That caused the desire to sleep, day and night.
Are you getting the picture? This is a BAD medical monster. So take notice.
So what’s my prognosis? The doctors caught it in time – bearly. Had I waited even a few days longer, I’d be dead. I avoided medical care because I don’t have health insurance. But think about it. Orphaning my daughters would have been a lot worse than paying off medical bills – slowly. DO NOT WAIT if you have my symptoms and travel habits. GET HELP.
I was in the hospital from Monday to Thursday on IV blood thinners – the kick ass kind to save your life. I left with self injection blood thinners to bridge from the IV to the oral treatment gradually. After a week of two shots a day, I’ll take only oral blood thinners for six months to a year.
I’m not allowed to travel until October – too dangerous to risk MORE clots forming while we treat the clusters I’ve already generated. But I wouldn’t want to travel yet anyway because I am still very short of breath. But it’s improving day to day. In a month, I should be feeling MUCH better. By October, I should feel on top of the world.
I’ll bruise far more easily – blood thinners do that. And if I have a traumatic head injury or a serious cut, it might kill me. So I’ll have to be careful. But I can LIVE with that. I’d have DIED without it.
At the end of a year, if all goes well, they might take me off the blood thinners. I can try to be a smarter traveler and avoid a repeat of this very frightening experience. And believe me, I will do all I can to protect myself now. But I wanted to pass my experience on to warn all of YOU.
To make a living as a writer, frequent travel is very often necessary. Don’t go through what I had to endure – not if you don’t have to. Take those five steps and stay healthy. If I’m lucky, in a year, I’ll be right there beside you – a smarter, more thoughtful traveler, ready for whatever the writing life has in store.
I walked down the jet bridge and noticed I could hardly breathe. I wrote it off as being a consequence of too much extra weight, until I had to sit down in the chair closest the jet bridge to try and catch my breath. My face must have registered panic, because a young airport employee offered to get me a wheel chair and I enthusiastically accepted.
Laurie, the librarian waiting in baggage claim held a sign with my name on it, but her mouth fell open as I was wheeled to her side. I felt the same. I had no idea how I’d work when I could hardly take a dozen steps without the sensation of drowning. But I am a pro. I would find a way, and I did.
For two days, we arrived at my presentation appointments early. I had half an hour to bring my pulse rate down – my breath in check. I talked to the kids sitting down and we had a great time. The librarians said I did a great job. But I felt as if I’d failed them.
I boarded my return flight July 29 in a wheel chair – and a chair was waiting for me in Spokane. My daughter Vanessa was deeply concerned when I explained. I told her it was just bronchitis but I promised I’d see a doctor on Monday, August 3 – after I finished my third novel for Lerner. The novel went untouched. I slept through the next few days -- exhausted, weak, nearly mindless.
The walk in clinic sent me straight to the emergency room. After a CT Scan, blood work and a review of my school year travel habits, the diagnosis was clear -- deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms. Dehydration and inactivity on flights had caused blood clots to form in my legs. Those clots – lots of them -- had settled in both of my lungs.
Had I waited to seek help, I would have died, as have 100,000 Americans every calendar year. Turns out DVT PE is a very real, very serious problem – a problem that is easily avoided.
How? Take a few simple steps if you travel as often as I do – or even if you don’t.
1. Wear compression socks. I tried the thigh highs and tossed them out. Skip the thigh highs, and go for the socks that stop at the knee. Compression footware helps prevent swelling that causes the blood to clot and become trapped in your swollen feet and ankles.
2. Take two aspirin on travel days. Aspirin is a natural blood thinner and helps keep the blood from pooling and thickening in your legs to form clots.
3. Drink lots of water as you travel. Notice I said LOTS of water, not LOTS of cola or alcohol. Water is the magic element when it comes to protecting yourself from DVT PE. It keeps your blood flowing more efficiently, so drink a LOT, even if it means more trips to the bathroom.
4. Take a walk or two or three – in the plane. I know it annoys your fellow travelers, but I no longer care. If I can tolerate some man’s privates in my face while he stows his carry on, other people can tolerate my preventative strolls.
5. Watch that swelling in your legs. If it’s excessive or accompanied by extreme pain, what looks like bruising or heightened redness, see it as a red flag and SEE YOUR DOCTOR. Fixing it before it’s taken root is a lot easier than fixing it after the blood clots line your lungs or worse, travel to your heart or brain.
I did not follow these five steps because I didn’t know the dangerous potential. I’d heard that NBC journalist David Bloom had died suddenly of DVT PE in , but he was entrenched with tanks in Iraq – hot, dry, 12 hours without walking. That wasn’t my lifestyle – except it was, for all intents and purposes. Excessive travel replicates the same issues that took David Bloom and 100,000 people each year.
Was it my weight? No. Being overweight doesn’t help, but it didn’t CAUSE the problem. Sitting for hours at a time in a state of dehydration caused it. And that can be avoided.
By the way, I was oxygen deprived because of the breathing difficulty – short of breath. But there was more to the disruption. If you can’t get air IN, you can’t get carbon dioxide OUT. So my muscles and internal organs were also in a highly toxic state -- poisoned. That caused the desire to sleep, day and night.
Are you getting the picture? This is a BAD medical monster. So take notice.
So what’s my prognosis? The doctors caught it in time – bearly. Had I waited even a few days longer, I’d be dead. I avoided medical care because I don’t have health insurance. But think about it. Orphaning my daughters would have been a lot worse than paying off medical bills – slowly. DO NOT WAIT if you have my symptoms and travel habits. GET HELP.
I was in the hospital from Monday to Thursday on IV blood thinners – the kick ass kind to save your life. I left with self injection blood thinners to bridge from the IV to the oral treatment gradually. After a week of two shots a day, I’ll take only oral blood thinners for six months to a year.
I’m not allowed to travel until October – too dangerous to risk MORE clots forming while we treat the clusters I’ve already generated. But I wouldn’t want to travel yet anyway because I am still very short of breath. But it’s improving day to day. In a month, I should be feeling MUCH better. By October, I should feel on top of the world.
I’ll bruise far more easily – blood thinners do that. And if I have a traumatic head injury or a serious cut, it might kill me. So I’ll have to be careful. But I can LIVE with that. I’d have DIED without it.
At the end of a year, if all goes well, they might take me off the blood thinners. I can try to be a smarter traveler and avoid a repeat of this very frightening experience. And believe me, I will do all I can to protect myself now. But I wanted to pass my experience on to warn all of YOU.
To make a living as a writer, frequent travel is very often necessary. Don’t go through what I had to endure – not if you don’t have to. Take those five steps and stay healthy. If I’m lucky, in a year, I’ll be right there beside you – a smarter, more thoughtful traveler, ready for whatever the writing life has in store.
Thank you, Lucy Kubo and everyone else to stepped up to help!
My dear friend Lucy Kubo knew I had no health insurance, so she started a GoFundMe to help pay the hospital bills. Dozens of people made me cry by offering donatons, and I could not be more grateful. So my sweet daughter, Vanessa created this artwork to thank them -- each and every one -- for their amazing generosity. If you'd like a copy of the postcard, please let me know. It's the very least I can do to thank you -- not just for the donations, but for the kindness, the prayers, the positive energy and the love. You helped me, my daughters and my father to know we are not in this alone. And it means everything to me. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
