Deep Vein Thrombosis - the causes

So having come to terms with the facts of Multi-Focal Pulmonary Emboli and addressing the immediate dangers of the condition, it's time to review how this has come to pass.

Having reviewed the scans, the cardiologist was able to identify certain characteristics about the clots quite accurately and this led to the conclusion that a DVT breaking free from my leg was the most probable cause.

Normally I'd associate DVT with long haul flying and I must confess I've probably been a bit blazé about those concerns. I fly long haul not much more than once a year, but certainly make sure that I get up and about when I do. I never wore compression socks though and I do enjoy a few drinks whilst I'm being served them.

Actually there are more than a few contributing factors to DVT, of course. In my case, I frequently fly short haul, but when you travel from Glasgow to go anywhere, more often than not it's a short flight to Amsterdam, before another flight to your final destination - In the worst period last year I took 14 flights in 15 days.

The issue with long haul flying seems mainly to surround the fact that you can find yourself seated for 3 hours or more, here's the bit that bothers me now, for although most of my flights are cramped into cattle class short haul jobs where the flight time might be no more than 90 minutes, you can sit on the plane for 45 minutes before taxiing and take another 20 minutes at the other end (try landing at an outer runway at Schiphol), suddenly those short haul adventures are much closer to 3 hours seated than you think.

Beyond flying though, recent months have seen me slumped at my desk in the afternoons. From quite active mornings, as in getting up and down from my desk occasionally to make a cup of tea, the afternoon can go from the lunchtime van delivery - it arrives in the car park at 12 noon daily - to having sat at the screen for anything up to 4 or 5 hours solid. During the Autumn period, my Fitbit was warning me that I was inactive. Reviewing the records, I slipped into barely doing any exercise at all for 2 & 3 weeks and my belt got accordingly tighter.

Simply sitting at my desk getting fatter could be a major contributing factor to the development of this DVT.

Why post this part of the story? Well, I have had a Fitbit for a number of years. I got around to viewing it as a bit of a waste of time. Basically it reflected whether I'd had an active day or not. If I walked into town for lunch, I easily scored my 10k steps. If I took lunch from the van, I barely scored 7k steps. But looking at the Fitbit daily, isn't the only point. It is actually a very good indicator of long term trends, so whilst I was failing to score any stars for 1 day per week, who cares, but start failing for 3 or 4 days a week, then start stretching that out to 3 & 4 week periods... well it's not rocket science is it. Getting heavier AND spending more & more, longer & longer periods in a sitting position is not a good trend, but that is what I was doing and I have the records to prove it...

The other thing that my Fitbit was also screaming at me was that my resting heart rate had made a step change from constantly below 60 to sitting above 75 for a period. Like a true eject, I just ignored this and assumed it would rectify itself once I started exercising again - Should have gone straight to the Dr. with that information alone.

This isn't an advert for Fitbit - other activity trackers are available; but if you invest on one, you should at least make use of the information it provides you!