I Knew Better Than That...

Well, while our trip to CO was a blast, I think we may have overdone it. I called my hematologist ahead of time and asked about Lovenox, as I was going to be flying, and we would be at a higher elevation than Omaha. The gal that I've been in contact with (goody) calls me back and says that I don't need to be on anything, since I'm not going to be in the mountains. Um, who said that? Okay, whatever. I took 4x the amount of Aspirin I normally do and tried to stay hydrated....tried. :) Well, Jim and I were spontaneous this trip, crazy, I know...and ended up in the Rockies. We kept going higher and higher....lol Prior to that, I was already experiencing the worst leg cramps I've ever had...to the point of panic. We almost went to the ER, but decided to wait it out and see if it was just dehydration. Being the nerd that I am, I did research while we were on the road, and found a study that showed that people in higher elevations who drank free water had an increased viscosity in their blood versus those who drank an electrolye drink (such as Gatorade...barf), which showed no changes or slight decrease. What?!?! Okay, weird..so we searched for Gatorade. You know, that's hard stuff to find in CO...especially around the mountains..all they have is, well, water! :) Anyway, it didn't go away, in fact, during the flight home, my other leg suddenly had a hot flush feeling.

I called my Dr. the next day and had an ultrasound done, which was negative. My hematologist was out of town, so they had someone else check me out. She ordered labs to see how dehydrated I was. My sodium was just a tad off, but being I'm 27, she felt that it should have been higher, so what did she recommend? Stay away from free water and drink Gatorade. haha Anyway, I asked her over the phone about the MTHFR mutation, and she tells me that she doesn't know anything about it, as she was only filling in and specializes in Leukemia, and in fact, there isn't much out there regarding the mutation as of right now. Fabulous. Perhaps that's why they didn't offer to do a d-dimer? It didn't really matter anyway...I had several large bruises and I would have had to show them and they would have said no to it anyway, but she didn't even think of it. Boy, do I feel safe or what. I then asked her if it was possible that I already had a DVT and it has moved. She said that given my history, yes, it is possible, and to watch for the signs and symptoms, and if anything happens to call the office. Yeah....that makes me feel a lot better. GREAT! :) So....I guess if you don't hear from me in a few weeks...I'm either in the hospital or dead.... :) You gotta have a sense of humor to stick around with me, btw. :)

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