Wear socks. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, socks would be it.

I've had an interesting few days, but an interesting side note is my new found passion for getting the population of the world to wear socks. Let me explain ...

It all starts back in late December when I flew back to Australia from San Francisco, it's a 14 hour flight. I'd had a huge week in SF and unusually I slept for a good 10 hours, departing the plane I felt very refreshed for such a long flight. A few days later I started to get quite bad neck and shoulder pain, it remained for a few days and I went to see a doctor, he assured me it was muscular and I had nothing to worry about.

Fast forward to last week and I'd been having some calf pain and a very slight cough. The calf pain got worse through the week, the cough was hardly noticeable. By this Wednesday I knew I needed to see a doctor about the calf, along I went on Thursday morning, he sent me straight for an ultrasound mentioning the words DVT. I'm like haven't people died from DVT? He said go get a scan now! 1 hour later I'm getting told I have a serious clot in my calf and I need to go straight to hospital, do not pass go or collect $200, go straight to hospital. 30 minutes later I'm in hospital going through CT scans, ultrasounds, blood tests and so on. About 3 hours later I'm about to leave the hospital to medicate myself with anti clotting medicine to stop further clotting when the specialist (The Clot Guru) looks at my scan, and tells me I have massive Pulmonary embolus or PE (clots on the lung) and I ain't going nowhere. That neck pain back in December was the PE and by rights I shouldn't of made it through it.

5 days, many tests and scares later I'm out of hospital. Touchwood I should recover pretty well, I'll be on drugs for 3/6 months maybe life, blood tests most days for the next few months and follow up tests over the coming months.

So here is the really interesting bit, DVT can happen to anyone at any age with any fitness. The biggest reduction of risk when you're going to be less mobile for a while (long haul flights for example) is wearing some travel socks that cost $30, and guess what they could reduce your risk by 90%!! so do yourself and your family a favor if you're going on a long flight ...

Wear socks. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, socks would be it.

Comments

[Lucas]

Mark!
Glad to hear that you are ok and that this was not worse that it was.
Hope you make a full recovery!

[Malcolm Barclay]

Consider me converted & an evangelist. Talk to you soon. Best regards, Malcolm.

[Steve Nelson]

Jebus that's scary stuff. Are you talking about normal everyday socks? Or are you talking about some sort of special 'travel' socks?

[Scott Barnes]

I fly to Seattle next week so i've packed socks as per your instructions Mr Blair. You clearly didn't pay attention to the in-flight pre-safety video did you ;) hehe.. Ask my brother about clotting he'll tell you a great war story about it when you next see him.

-
Scott Barnes
RIA / DVT Evangelist
Microsoft.