Feelin' Swell

Come join LimeVine for an Old-Fashioned Summer Soiree, our first ever guest launch!!! Search "Boutique LLB" to see all the AMAZING listings!

For my contribution I wanted to do something a little retro and vintagey, sweet and girly. I have been in love with this fabric for a couple months now, and realized it would be a perfect fit for what I had in mind.

The red polka-dots and flared capris add that retro vibe... the delicate lace detail on the halter bodice, along with the fluttery ivory-colored gauze, gives it a sweet feminine touch... and the summer hat is just plain cute and girly!

Random Naps

Ninja Nate

I swear, he has never watched Ninja Turtles, or Power Rangers, or anything really, and yet before he knew what a sword was, he was turning EVERYTHING into one! What's up with those little guys???

Our Health Scare... RAISING AWARENESS

At the beginning of this year, my 30-year-old healthy husband started to get sick. 1st diagnosis: bronchitis. 2nd diagnosis: pneumonia. When he wasn't improving much after a few days and his leg started to hurt like a bruise or pulled muscle, I started looking up other possible diagnoses and came across a very sobering article on Pulmonary Embolism (PE) that probably saved his life.

I initially thought it probably wasn't PE but decided to bring him to the ER anyway, since PE can mimic other illnesses including pneumonia. Even at the ER they didn't seem very concerned, and would have sent him home had I not specifically asked them to test for blood clots. The blood test came back off-the-charts, they gave him a CT-scan, and discovered massive clotting in both lungs. He also has a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) extending from below his knee up to the groin, which had been breaking off and causing the PEs. While this will be a life-long issue to deal with, he's doing very well, and I'm just very VERY thankful that we caught this in time!! If it had gone on undiagnosed, as it usually does, it likely would have killed him. The doc said if he'd been 65 at the time this happened, it probably would have.

In our journey over the past couple months, I've been repeatedly shocked by how under-recognized and misdiagnosed this condition is, considering how common and deadly it is. While I don't want to scare anyone needlessly, I do think EVERYONE should be aware of what this is, what symptoms to look for, and tips to prevent it.


SOME FACTS...

- Pulmonary embolism (PE) is an extremely common and highly lethal condition that is a leading cause of death in all age groups. It is the third most common cause of death in the US, with at least 650,000 cases occurring annually

- If properly diagnosed and treated, only about 1/12th die from massive PE or its complications. Untreated, roughly 1/3 die.

- The highest incidence of recognized PE occurs in hospitalized patients. Autopsy results show that as many as 60% of patients dying in the hospital have had a PE, but the diagnosis has been missed in about 70% of the cases.

- The diagnosis of PE is missed more than 400,000 times in the US each year, and approximately 100,000 patients die who would have survived with the proper diagnosis and treatment. Many of these go unrecognized and labeled as heart attacks.

- It is the most commonly missed diagnosis responsible for death in the elderly institutionalized patient.

- Most patients with DVT develop PE and the majority of cases are unrecognized clinically.
While my husband's particular case is rare, about 5% of the population has his defective blood clotting factor (called Factor V Leiden), and most don't know it. It usually doesn't cause problems, but can, especially when coupled with other risk factors such as pregnancy, birth control, etc.

Also, ANYONE who has even a minor surgery (like knee surgery), hip surgery, is bed ridden, etc. is at risk and needs to take precautions. Pregnant women are at increased risk, as are women on birth control who smoke. In the last month I've come across several young people in online chat rooms who didn't know what precautions to take after a simple knee surgery, and ended up with DVT and/or PE.

Another thing... DH had noticed some shortness of breath (with no other symptoms) for about 2 months before all this happened. He attributed it to getting out of shape and getting older. He'd been walking around with DVT/PE for probably 2 months and hadn't the slightest idea.


SOME RISK FACTORS...

- Pregnancy
- Use of certain drugs such as birth control pills or estrogen hormones
- Paralysis from a stroke or spinal cord injury;
- A cast on a leg to help heal a fractured bone;
- Confinement in bed due to a medical or surgical condition;
- Prolonged sitting, especially with crossed legs, in a car, train, or airplane.
- Cancer
- Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis)
- Certain unusual blood conditions


SYMPTOMS TO LOOK FOR…

- Symptoms that should provoke a suspicion of PE must include chest pain, chest wall tenderness, back pain, shoulder pain, upper abdominal pain, fainting, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, painful respiration, new onset of wheezing, any new cardiac arrhythmia, or any other unexplained symptom referable to the thorax.

- PE is so common and so lethal that the diagnosis should be sought actively in every patient who presents with any chest symptoms that cannot be proven to have another cause.


I know this is really LONG and I don’t want to come across as preachy, I’m really not that way :). March is DVT awareness month, and I want to do my part in raising awareness for this silent killer. DVT/PE is so common (it kills more people each year in the U.S. than breast cancer, AIDS, and highway fatalities combined), and yet so few people know much about it. If posting this might help even one person recognize the risks/symptoms, it could possibly spare them the devastation that comes with the condition.

Hopefully you have never had to deal with it, and never will. But if you do…if you or someone you know has a seemingly minor but unexplained pain in the leg that won’t go away…unexplained shortness of breath…chest pain that isn’t proven to be of another cause…etc…please go get checked out! My husband was reluctant to go in, and even the ER doc seemed to think we were just being paranoid. (Only after they found the PE did DH say, “Well, I don’t feel so stupid about being here now.” LOL—men!) It probably is something minor, but getting it checked out won’t hurt anything, and it could save someone’s life.

SOME INFORMATIONAL LINKS…
http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic490.htm
http://www.dvt.net/
http://www.clotcare.com/clotcare/index.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_vein_thrombosis
Amie