The Relationship Between Surgical Procedures and Blood Clots

Wake-up time. If you're going to have surgery in the near or distant future, please read this post. As common, a little history first.  

Blood clot

Blood clots are a solemn reminder of just how fragile the human body is. Blood clots usually appear in your legs and are called deep vein thrombosis (DVT), the most common type of blood clot after surgery. They typically remain in the legs, but can break free and begin to move through the blood stream, like to the lungs or brain, known as an embolism. I had two blood clot experiences as a stroke survivor, and with both, the hospital kept me for a week each time. You might think that doctors and nurses are obsessed by blood clots, but this event is serious business. And the obsession is valid.

Blood clots can lead to a stroke, another name for an embolism that travels to the brain. Strokes can result in long-term disabilities including slurred speech, an inability to speak, one-sided weakness, and facial drooping, for example. 

Pulmonary embolism

A pulmonary embolism means one clot landed up in your lungs, causing possible pain and severe shortness of breath, resulting in death for 30%.   

Clots are often associated with surgery. The reason is, the person is lying still during the procedure and potentially for many hours post-surgery. (Blood clots, as mentioned in my blog, can also form when an person is motionless for long periods of time, such as during airplane ride a long car trip. http://stroketales.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2013-07-01T00:00:00-04:00&updated-max=2013-08-01T00:00:00-04:00&max-results=2)

The type of surgery you are having can also increase the risk of having blood clots after the procedure. If your surgery requires your arteries, veins, or tendons to be cut or repaired, the risk of a blood clot is higher because your body works to stop bleeding by forming clots. 

The risk factors for blood clots both during and after surgery may include:

• History of Blood Clots: If you have had a blood clot in the past, your are more likely to have one in the future.  
• Genetics: If your family is prone to clots, you may be, too. 
• Atrial Fibrillation: Patients with an irregular heart beat have an increased risk of forming blood clots.
• Pregnancy: The chance of blood clots increase as the body makes blood clot faster in preparation for child birth.
• Cancer: Some types of cancer make blood clot more easily.
• Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT): One known side effect of HRT is the increased risk of forming blood clots.
• Obesity
• Smoking
• Prolonged Immobility which include the time during anesthesia and recovering
• Heart Valve Issues people with replacement heart valves or heart valve problems have a higher risk of forming clots that can then travel to the lungs or brain.

After surgery, if you are able, get up and move during your recovery, one of the ways to prevent blood clots. Staying well hydrated by drinking ample amounts of water can also reduce your risk of forming clots, too.  


One treatment for blood clots post surgery is heparin, a medication that is given by injection or by IV to prevent the formation of clots, to reduce the clots that already formed, or to keep the blood clots from getting larger. Another is Coumadin, or the generic Warfarin, given to help the body remove a clot from the bloodstream.

In cases where there is a high risk of the clot moving to the lungs or brain, especially after surgery, a device called an inferior vena cava filter (or Greenfield Filter) may be placed, which acts like a tiny porous vessel, catching clots before they can damage the lungs or brain. A small incision in the groin or neck is how the filter is put into place in the inferior vena cava. But the blood clots can break off and go to your lungs or brain anyway. That is how I had a pulmonary embolism. The filter can catch all, but sometimes not everything.

So you really have to hope for the best because the cold truth is, you never know what's gonna bite you in the ass next.

Walmart--A Convenient Place to Shop, Unless You're a Shoplifter

As a stroke survivor, I always feel vulnerable. I can't escape  from danger because I can't run away--from a fire, a mugging, or even a bee attack, for instance. As a result, I evoke unsolicited drama wherever I go. So it's time to tell you the story of when we went to Walmart.

Walmart, especially the super-sized ones, is the place you go when you need a variety of things, a consolidation of the trips you would have taken to the grocery store, the hardware emporium, and the plant shop, for example.

A couple of days ago, I (in my wheelchair because sometimes the scooters are wet from I-don't-know-what but I can take a guess) and my friend went to Walmart wearing casual clothing--the two of us in jeans and hoodies (my hoodie comes into play later on)--to shop for a bag of romaine, light bulbs, and a plant not requiring much of anything, like water and sunlight. But every time I go there, I get what's on the list and a slew of more items. Every time. Good marketing, I imagine.

Anyway, I also picked up an avocado and a box of tomatoes that an AARP article nudged me to do, a sun hat (which I didn't at all need), flip-flops for the future even though I still have an AFO, an extra extra jar of Musselman's  applesauce, just-in-case, that I use for taking my pills, a can of Pledge, two dust cloths (that are related to the Pledge), and two plants in case one of them dropped dead on the ride home. I also picked up batteries for my MP3 player that I use for exercising. My friend picked up a plastic container of Hershey's syrup that her son loved for chocolate milk.

The ride through the store was a hard one, going down every aisle in case I missed something, especially the sale items which Walmart calls "rollbacks." After a while, I couldn't carry the things on my lap anymore, after dropping the Hershey's syrup and Pledge three times. So my friend put the dropped items in my hood and we went to the cashier to check out. I got the receipt and attempted to exit the store.

However, I was in a high-anxiety state when extraordinarily loud alarm bells and buzzers started going off simultaneously. Soon, two beefy security men appeared. My friend (soon to be not) forgot to take out the Hershey's syrup and Pledge from my hood unknowingly. Really. Unknowingly! Evidently, Walmart has cameras, or security people watching from above.

Could it just prove my theory: You never know what will bite you in the ass next? I closed my eyes, expecting the worse, thinking to myself in the wheelchair, "Where am I exactly going? Could I run away? NO way!" My friend was standing alongside me.

"You have something in your hood," one of the guards said to me. It wasn't the time for jokes, but actually I had two things in my hood.

"Oh? I didn't know," I replied with all the self-righteousness I could muster. And I didn't know. She and I forgot about the allegedly stolen items. Because that's what they were. Allegedly stolen. Good thing the guards stopped us inside the store. I don't want to even think about what could've happened if we were outside the store.

I offered to pay for them and the two guards were looking at us skeptically with we-don't-give-away-free-stuff-at-Walmart expressions. Not a word from the guards any more. Without looking back, we just turned around, went to a cashier, and paid--me for the Pledge and her for the Hershey's. 

We didn't say a word during the long drive home. I was proud of myself for not saying, "She did it. It was her fault." And she was probably saying to herself, "Why do I even work for this woman." 

I found this article the next day on the computer:

Fort Lee, FL--A security guard at a Fort Myers Walmart was caught on video tackling a suspected shoplifter and holding her down. That employee has since been fired for how he handled the situation.

That worker told investigators he tried to stop them and they took off running. That's when he tackled them.

If that's the way Walmart's security guards were trained, were we lucky in retrospect? Absolutely!