This hunting tip may save your life!

[NorCalSkinner]

My annual hunting trips to Kansas are nothing short of mad dashes to and from California. The trip back from Kansas this year took 17.5 hours on day one (includes one and a half hours spent sitting waiting for an accident to be cleared west of Salt Lake) and 8.3 hours the next. I have always ignored the medical advice to stop the vehicle every two hours and walk around, drink lots of fluids, and take one aspirin every two hours. This advice is to reduce the potential for blood to ?pool up? in your legs. My arrogance caught up with me.

This year, the blood pooled up in my legs during my long periods of driving inactivity, and subsequently turned into blood clots. After returning to California these blood clots broke loose, went crashing through my heart, and filtered themselves out in my lungs. I instantly lost my ability to breathe normally. My gasping for air was frightening. Welcome to the emergency room, and subsequent hospitalization! 20% of my left lung was blocked, and 80% of my right lung was blocked. Two days later, still in the hospital, more clots broke loose lodging themselves in my lungs, and further reducing my oxygen transfer to a level barely able to support my life. I knew I was hanging on by a thin thread. After a week in the hospital on blood thinners and oxygen, I am happy to say that once again I am breathing on my own without the oxygen and doing much better. I went from my ability to run a 5 minute mile, to full stop. I still can not walk any distance, much less jog or run; hunting, ATV riding, etc is out of the question for the next nine months as I will continue to be on blood thinners. Dang, they even took away all my ?toys and tools? that have sharp edges? oh well! The doctors assure me that I will get better, and have a full recovery. That was close!

It is very important NOT to do what I have done. As an ex-Army helicopter gunship pilot, commercially rated pilot, and serious traveler, I KNEW better; but I felt that this advice was meant for you and everyone else and did not apply to me. I ignored the fact that one of my life-long, friends since high school, a retired Air Force Colonel, B-52 jock died three years ago due to this same thing (pulmonary embolism). I even delivered the eulogy at his funeral. (REMEMBER, it does NOT apply to me! I do this every year with no problem!) Well, my arrogance nearly cost me my life. PLEASE do NOT repeat my serious mistake! This is seriously dangerous stuff!

PLEASE stop the vehicle every two hours and walk around, drink lots of water, and take one aspirin every two hours? unless you want to see immediately how the seasons and hunting in are in heaven! Take care? enjoy the journey!

 

[jakesdad]

I have had the "pleasure" of a blood clot in the leg also,only mine was caught in time and did not break free.horrible pain felt like a constant bad charlie horse in my leg,swelled up and was red as a tomato.had to get shots in my stomach every 12 hrs(blood thinner)for 3 days and then on pill blood thinner for a while.Did enough damage to the veins and vessels in my leg the circulation still isnt 100% and will still swell around just below my calf and to my foot.have to wear the compression style socks for the circulation support now.I urge everyone to take the easy but necessary precautions to prevent this!!

 

[funman]

thanks for the tip i must start doing that, i didnt know how serious that could be. Got me wondering how long i sit in a climbing stand now . Im glad to hear you are better now

 

[shooter44n45]

Glad to hear your ok, I cant imagine how the long haul truckers deal with these issues.

 

[black powder]

very interesting read ...thanks for the heads up

 

[HawgHunter]

Thanks for the advice; I too take long trips on a regular basis. I wish you a speedy recovery.

 

[Les Staley]

Thanks

Thank you for the reminder.. I will be traveling to Michigan on Wed and Thurs. I will for sure stop every couple of hours and get in some brisk walking. the water and asprin trick I did not know about.. will apply all of it.. thanks again.. Les

 

[bernieg]

Long trips on airplanes will do the same thing! Good reminder.

 

[CowboyAl]

I had the same kind of issues about 6 years ago. I was toting alot of windshield time as I was about 4hrs from my home. That being said I also was mountain biking in the evenings so I was active. My docs think I may have injured my leg that the clotting started in. But I had no recollection of injury. In hindsight I actual think I was spending so much time on the bike and with those new improved sleek looking bike seats that have little or no pading and put too much pressure on the insides of you groin, especially when your a + sized dude.
I awoke one morning, before work and had a knot in my calf muscle. I tried to work it out during the day while at work but it got worse. I was living in my RV as I had just started a new job and hadn't moved the family down yet (hence the 4hrs from home) without knowing any better I applied a heating pad to my leg as well as using the shower head to massage my calf with hot water. My leg got so bad that I couldn't bend it, and it was as hard as a rock, a co-worker urged me to go to a doctor, I reluctantly agreed. A visit to my family doc followed by an ultrasound and x-rays revealed that my left leg was full of blood clots. I'm still dumbfounded that I didn't accidently kill myself, with the heat and hot shower massaging one of those clots could have let loose and it would have been game over....

Daily medication, weekly blood tests, then no meds just daily low dose aspirin, followed by monthly bloodtest, eventually I was cleared but still take the daily low dose aspirin. It's something that we don't give any thought to but can be very serious :shock: