Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
My father is a big proponent of natural/Eastern/holistic medicine and a skeptic of all things "Western Medicine." I usually don't subscribe to his tenets on health topics, but he threw something out yesterday that got me to thinking.
His theory is that I had some sort of "allergic" reaction to something and that my body's response was to form blood clots. He ranted on about how "Western Medicine" doctors don't really understand allergies and how your body's reaction to something can cause all sorts of problems aside from those we normally associate with an allergic reaction (hives, breathing issues, etc.).
Anyone else ever hear of such a thing or have some sort of experience that backs up this allergy theory?
His theory is that I had some sort of "allergic" reaction to something and that my body's response was to form blood clots. He ranted on about how "Western Medicine" doctors don't really understand allergies and how your body's reaction to something can cause all sorts of problems aside from those we normally associate with an allergic reaction (hives, breathing issues, etc.).
Anyone else ever hear of such a thing or have some sort of experience that backs up this allergy theory?
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
My Hematologist concedes that there are so many things they don't know yet about clotting and they're learning new stuff all the time. I do think our bodies can freak out, due to stress, environment and our own physiologies, hence, autoimmune diseases.
With that said, while your dad rants about western medicine, it probably saved your life.
Blood clots are ALSO associated with thyroid disease, in particular hypothyroid, but I don't really see where it's common practice for a doc to test thyroid function in DVT patients. I'm with RMB - think we have a helluva lot left to learn.
Your hematoltogist echoes what I was told in the hospital, which was that I may have something that "we just don't have a way to test for yet." So much still to learn!
LauraLu: This is an interesting comment that you made about thyroid problems. I did not know there was a link between the thyroid and blood clots! BOTH of my parents have thyroid issues and I'm thinking I may push to have my hematologist (I see him on Monday) run a thyroid test on me ... I know the link between the two is not concrete, but this does give me something to look at! Thanks so much!
I don't know anything about how allergies might play into clots, but anything is possible. I think it's healthy to be slightly skeptical of ALL sorts of medicine, Eastern or Western, because medicine is not an exact science in any of its forms (natural/holistic/Eastern medicine can be just as damaging as Western drugs if you're not careful) - but when you're sick, you just have to walk that line between doing what you have to do to get better and hoping the treatment doesn't create more problems.
Keeping an open mind about new theories and questions to ask your doc is always good and rarely hurts, no matter what medical discipline the idea came from :)