Why DVT can strike anyone, any time and how to avoid a killer blood clot
You don’t have to be an overweight smoker drinking alcohol on a 12-hour flight to be at risk of deep vein thrombosis; anyone immobile for just a few hours should do some simple leg exercises to prevent a potentially fatal blood clot
Who has not heard of DVT – deep vein thrombosis? I thought it happened only in overweight, unfit people over the age of 50, people who smoked too much, exercised too little and got their comeuppance as they ate their way through airline meals on seriously long-haul flights.
So when I – under 50 at the time, fit, non-smoker, lean – awoke after being cat-curled in a seat on a six-hour flight with a pain in my right calf, I naturally assumed it was only a cramp. I stretched my skinny-jean clad legs out, said “ouch”, gave it a rub and disembarked, certain I’d walk the soreness off in no time.
Except that I didn’t. Two days later, the deep ache was waking me at night and I resorted to pain medication. A nagging voice in my head began to question whether this was more than a mere cramp. A cautious friend advised a visit to a doctor’s clinic; the doctor examined my legs: no redness, no heat, no swelling – just pain.
“I’m sure it’s not DVT,” he said, “but we can’t take a chance.”
He sent me off to the accident and emergency department, where I had a blood test for D-dimer – a protein fragment from the breakdown of a blood clot. The test indicated I had DVT, confirmed by an ultrasound.