Mike's Ski DVT-"Thanks a clot!"

#7 –Mike’s ski DVT- /“Thanks a clot”
It was school vacation of 1988 – I remember because it was the year Joe graduated, barely, from high school ,thanks to hockey. We were up at Killington , staying at Debbie’s Aunt Ruth’s ski lodge… there was a big troup of us skiing and I went off with Joe and Donna D who got in the double lift chair ahead of me. I went up conversing with a nice high school kid from Cambridge. As we entered the chairlift off zone I turned to him as we stood up and started sliding and said “good talking to you; have a good day” and the next thing I knew my skis crossed and I fell awkwardly in slow motion twisting my left knee…not really painful ,but when I tried to get up it just folded under me, and hurt producing a slight nausea. I crawled myself out of the way and the ski patrol arrived and I became one of those poor unfortunates brought head first down the mountain on the rescue sled as Joe and Donna followed behind. Joe helped me into the First Aid office at the lodge and the on-site MD declared,”Yep, that the classic, simple knee sprain; you just need to use the crutches provided and get checked out back home.” …Well it did not quite work out that way for then and the long run. I hung out in the Lodge until Cyndy and everyone finished skiing. The knee/leg did not really hurt; it was just stiff, swollen and could not hold my weight, but I could get around with the crutches OK. We drove back home the next day,and I saw Schiffman/Heller in the local Ortho practice. “Just use the crutches for a few days to get around; keep the leg elevated; go back to work in 2-3 days and see us in 3 weeks.” I was teaching at Silver Lake at the time Rm 247 on the 2nd floor and I was accustomed to being on my feet most of the time, walking a good bit , so I did not go back until Thurs and for Friday…but it seemed that every time I was on my feet for any length of time my left leg would get really swollen, in fact when I had it raised and then lowered it to the floor it was downright painful. Long story short= over the following 2 weeks I’d go to school for a day or two and the leg would get swollen. I went back to the ortho practice and they gave me another higher tech immobilizer once, prescribed Physical therapy with hot tub another time…I went back on what was to be my 3 week Ortho follow-up, supposed to be completely recovered and mobile,but my leg had continued to swell and I could hardly get a shoe on. The Doc took one look and exclaimed,” Wow, your leg is so fat!” “No kidding”, I replied and I reviewed the evals I had had over the past 3 weeks and he said, ”Well it should not be like this…you need to go home and keep your leg up over your heart all night and in the morning have a venogram; if there are blood clots, you will need to be admitted to the hospital .” So I went home and kept the leg up. That night’s episode of “ER” coincidentally featured a guy who died because of blood clots in the leg that broke off and traveled thruogh his heart and lungs. After a nervous night of sleep I had the venogram; the MD had to try to find a vein 3 times in my left foot (OUCH!) because it was so swollen. The results came back showing the left leg was “loaded with clots”. So I was admitted for IV Heparin and observation. I felt fine, other than hobbled with the left leg bent and the IV pole as a constant companion. This was my first experience as a hospitalized patient and fortunately the room was private ,but there were a few poor demented souls for neighbors. After 3 days Cyndy provided one of the most appreciated creature comforts ever when she brought me down the hall and washed my hair in the janitor’s sink! An idea started to take root that if some of these folks who provided nursing care to me could do it , so could I. The question – what if I decided to follow Cyndy’s inspiring example and instead of organizing health education programs as a teacher, I could become a nurse and give direct patient care. HMMMMM???
After the 5th day I was discharged home on the clot preventer coumadin and physical therapy. My left leg was so frozen and bent backward that it took quite a few PT sessions to free it up. I vividly recall many times lying face down on a mat while a 110 lb female PT applied persistent and strong pressure to loosen my leg back into alignment and flexibility. Man I felt like a was on the loosing end of a wrestling match about to pound the mat as the peanut PT put a necessary hurtin on me! This is where I also got the tip to use large bags of frozen peas as a cold pack to take down the swelling= much more user friendly than melting ice.
Altogether I was out of school for 20 days and learned the very important lesson that no one ,including myself is indispensible…school and the rest of the world goes ever on.
A chain of thought had been set off regarding nursing and the next year I took A&P one night a week at Massasoit, and tried the Regent’s exterior degree exam program. It became obvious that I needed to get the classroom and clinical experience and so I made my teaching farewell in June of 1989, took summer Micro and Chemistry, was accepted to the “U of Q” nursing school and the rest has been an amazingly rewarding history which partly began with that ski fall.

Also – fast forward to 9/30/10 and after having 8 ½ hour neobladder surgery for cancer 9/20 (I did not see that coming!) I had an almost always fatal saddle pulmonary embolus – in fact in my medical record it states that it was fatal. See later Close Encounters episode for graphic details. It was deemed a ‘provoked” clot as was the ski accident and indeed in both cases the clot has provoked a renewed gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful life Cyndy and I share…so “thanks a clot!”