Blood clot

Hi guys,

Just an update on my mum. She suddenly developed pain and swelling to her left foot which left her unable to walk. She had to go the hospital and now she’s been admitted with low blood pressure and what they think is a blood clot. Has anybody else had as many setbacks when they’re first starting treatment? Mum is getting sick of it.

[Lindaura]

Oh, your poor mom!

Sadly this kind of cancer throw up a world of woes.

Blood clots are one of them, because this cancer makes our blood sticky, and it wants to clump together.

After my first hospitalisation, like hers: with pleural effusion, couldn’t eat or drink or breathe, then I was so weak and breathless, I had to come back in for nutrition and hydration, just to make me strong enough for the CT scan to see the many blood clots that had formed in my lungs.

You soon learn to give yourself blood thinning shots in a fatty fold on your belly and it is annoying, but it saves your life.

There will be more hiccups in her treatment, I am sure. But she needs the treatment. Once the cancer is destroyed, it can’t give you sticky blood anymore!

Best wishes,

Laura

[Neona]

I had a pulmonary embolism following surgery. As I have clear cell I have to take blood thinners now permanently. At least it has been spotted and will clear up ith treatment.

[BeeWild]

Hi I too developed a DVT in my groin in January due to anaemia caused by the treatment. It’s still not fully resolved but I’m slowly getting there and giving myself the 2 injections of Clexane a day is now routine.im desperate to up my exercise levels as I think it helps a lot with getting through treatment and your mental health during this. I’m taking things slowly as it’s been quite a rough ride for me recently and the DVT can be debilitating, I’m setting little goals so currently I’m achieving 3.5k steps a day and am hoping to up that to 4K from today. A far cry from me when I ran half marathons but every little helps! It’s frustrating but get your mum to start off small and build up her tolerance to physical stuff slowly. It does seem at times this journey is one step forward and 6 back but we all hope that will pass x

Take care

Bev x

[bamboo89]

Its very common indeed whilst receiving drug treatments for cancer I'm afraid, though not so common as things like neutropenia. Although having cancer on its own can cause blood clots, its the chemo that generally causes them, whereas others may cause haemorrhage. Because I've got a genetic problem that has caused me to have many deep vein thromboses down the years, I've been on blood thinning treatments for over 25 years (I'm 68 now); that rather complicated things when it came to deciding on appropriate cancer treatments - Avastin, for instance, was deemed unsuitable, too likely to cause unwanted bleeding because of being on blood thinners. It looked like a very delicate balancing act to me, because one of the chemotherapy drugs they wanted to use has a tendency to cause clots, in fact,I'm not sure that it wasn't both the drugs they wanted to try that might cause clots, and for someone like me, it was all a bit difficult for them to decide what to offer.

[Lind58]

Thinking of your mom, it really isn't fair. Hoping for the rest of the road to be smooth sailing.