Serena Williams Has Emergency Surgery
This is scary stuff. Serena Williams had emergency surgery on Monday for a pulmonary embolism. Doctors had discovered a blood clot in her lung which had traveled from her foot. This is that kind of thing you get when you spend lots of time sitting on airplanes which Serena obviously does. The thing is if you do not go to a doctor right away, these things can kill you. As fat as I am and as much as I loathe exercising, I still try and move my legs. I also get up each time I want a drink, and don't just rely on my mini-fridge at my feet. I am paranoid about blood clots even though I know they are rare. When I read about something like this, and how it can happen to a world class athlete it just makes me even more paranoid.
13 comments:
She was in a cast last year...that could have done it...
I believe she had surgery on her foot and this was a complication from that.
My best friend's mom died of one from being paralized.
Surgey definitely makes you prone to blood clots....as does birth control pills and some hypercoaguable blood conditions.
My uncle died from this while he was still in the hospital after surgery.
Get well soon!
My father-in-law was at Disneyland with the grandkids last year when he started to not feel good. He decided he wanted to go home so he drove from LA back up to Northern Calif (Sacramento area) which took him about 8 hours. He still felt bad and when we found out we took him to the ER. He had a blood clot that had actually made it through his heart. The doctor looked at us and then at him and told him he was a very lucky man and that it apparently wasn't his time to go yet. He's been on blood thinners since (which can cause a whole new set of problems). I wish Serena well!
My father-in-law was at Disneyland with the grandkids last year when he started to not feel good. He decided he wanted to go home so he drove from LA back up to Northern Calif (Sacramento area) which took him about 8 hours. He still felt bad and when we found out we took him to the ER. He had a blood clot that had actually made it through his heart. The doctor looked at us and then at him and told him he was a very lucky man and that it apparently wasn't his time to go yet. He's been on blood thinners since (which can cause a whole new set of problems). I wish Serena well!
@New! Wow what a story! You are right...he is lucky to be alive. I wonder if him not feeling well didn't really have much to do with the blood clot, or just a contributing factor, and the 8 hour drive actually caused the blood clot. I am so happy to hear he has survived and is doing well!
Get well, Serena.
As a medical student, I can attest PEs they aren't that rare. It one of the most common reasons for in-patient mortality (due to immobility).
There is barely a break in her twitter feed on Monday. Once again, something just doesn't seem to add up with Serena and her medical issues. I hope she is okay and recovers well.
@New - My Grandfather had a very similar experience. He drove around for several hours with chest pain. (For some reason he wanted to go to a hospital five hours away from the perfectly good hospital ten minutes from his house??) He was a pack a day smoker for DECADES and the doctors couldn't believe that he had survived having the clot in his heart for so long.
Tough old guy. And now he's quit smoking so I guess that's a good thing. I hope I have his genes!
I have a blood clot in my leg for almost a year now. It was discovered in April and I was admitted to the hospital for 5 days while my blood was thinned. I had to go for surgery a few weeks later for something else, and to prevent the clot from traveling a screen was inserted to block it. Well, the screen ended up resting on my liver, causing terrible pain and was removed a few days after my surgery. I am still on blood thinners, have to go the doctor every week to have my blood tested, and leg sonograms every other month to see if it is still there. Besides the terrible inconvenience, this blood clot has cost me a fortune.
While I'm not a Serena fan, I certianly don't wish her any ill. However, has anyone considered this as a possible side effect to a performance enhancing drug like EPO? Or has anyone bothered to ask what happened to her foot in the first place? You're not out for several months with a laceration from a piece of glass. Embolisms and other pulmonary issues aren't uncommon for blood dopers.
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