My Deep Vein Thrombosis Experience

Few days ago I read a news article about a former actor whose young wife died after giving birth, the symptoms were exactly the same to what happened to me about 5 years ago, she clearly died of Pulmonary Embolism but the actor was still at lost, he doesn't understand what happened to her 26 years old wife. I asked myself why I haven't blogged about it, oh yeah I did write a diary while I was in the hospital but it was in Multiply. I should have wrote it in a blog. I'm pretty sure she tried to google when she's experiencing pain in her leg, but just like me I'm sure she only got 'pregnancy cramps' or common back pain during pregnancy because there's only very few resources that talk about DVT during pregnancy.

I couldn't help but think, if only I knew her,  or if I have at least wrote about it and found me through googling, I could have saved her life. :(

I can't anymore recall the details but I can still remember how painful it was, the leg, the back pain, the 7 month injections, the bruises from the injections. Until now Iphone's default alarm sound still gives me a sad feeling whenever I hear it because I used it as an alarm for my 2x a day injection time. 

I was 8th weeks pregnant then, I never had a problem, no morning sickness in fact, my energy was up than usual. I was still working then in Tokyo and I ran from the house to the train station, to stairs going to the next station until the office on heels! It started as a little pain on my left leg whenever I walk, the pain stops when I sit or just stand because I was a software engineer who sits in front of the computer the whole day that doesn't require too much walking, the pain was manageable.

After three days, the pain creeped from the leg to the lower back, it's that top part of the buttocks but below the hips. I thought it was kidney stones so I went to see my doctor but he said it's not kidney stones because when he pound my back it's not painful, and if it were kidney stones I would have had fever. He said I was fine and it might be caused by my pelvis adjusting to my pregnancy.

Days have passed and the pain on my leg and back has gotten more painful, especially when I walk. It stops when I sit, it was weird because it's so painful when I walk but I don't feel any tinge of pain when I don't move. If it's rayuma, it should be painful every time. Still I managed because I was sitting the whole day, I thought it helped that I was super busy with work that I didn't even had time for a toilet break. (I told you my mental and physical energy when I was pregnant was off the charts! I couldn't be sick right?)

The the fateful day came, I guess it was about two weeks after since the first sign of pain, at 9 pm I logged out, took the elevator with a japanese coworker, told him to go ahead since I felt I needed to walk slower and then just like that, in snap the pain became so unbearable that I couldn't make one step anymore. I was not paralyzed but the pain in my left leg and lower back made it impossible for me to walk. I felt like I will die from pain if I make one step more. I dragged my leg a few steps more so I can sit on a bench outside the NTT Yokohama Building and called my husband who was working 45 minutes away from me. I waited for him while sitting on the bench, in a snowy night but freezing is better than walking. I could have died from freezing or hunger (because it's already 10 pm with no dinner yet!) or if I tried to walk I can die from the pain too. So that pain trumps everything, that's how I can describe it.

The emergency doctors couldn't figure out where the pain was coming from because they couldn't perform an x-ray so they ruled out it's just a common pregnancy cramps and advised me to take bed rest for two days. That night I had to piggy back on my husband to reach the house from our train station. At home, husband had to piggy back me every time I needed to go to the toilet even if we lived in a 30 sqm studio. That's how unbearable the pain is. The next day when I took a bath, I noticed my left leg turning red and hot. My friend messaged me online and told me she has read about DVT and she strongly suggest I go to my OB right away. It's weird because almost all the websites say that pregnancy DVT commonly happens in the 30th weeks but I was still on my first trimester at that time. Another friend suggested I go to the Chiropractor which I thought was more sensible since the I thought pain=bone=chiropractor. Four hours after I took a bath, I went to the chiro doctor who freaked out when he saw my left leg turned purple, he strongly advised us to go to my OB at once who looked more freaked out when my left leg turned dark purple and called the bigger hospital for an emergency referral.

The doctors at Tokyo Medical Center were quick to respond, they looked so scared but I was clueless on what was happening. They kept saying I can die, they put all the injections(heparin, antibiotics, dextrose) on me as fast as they could, and they never allowed me to move from my bed and told me if I move, I can die. And I was so desperate to pee.

The actor said they already performed CT scan on her wife but they didn't see anything, that's because DVT is very difficult to diagnose, blood clots can't be seen thru MRI or CT Scan. In my case, they only did MRI and CT Scan on me in the later part of my pregnancy just to check my blood flow and check any sign of stroke. During that time of emergency they performed 2D (or was it 4D) Echo on my left leg which is the only way to see blood clots. I remember they had to STAT in the best 2D/4D Echo doctor in the hospital who had previous experience in detecting blood clots. At that time, my blood clots were already in my stomach meaning, it's just a matter of hours before it reaches my lungs which could cause the fatal Pulmonary Embolism. I arrived at the hospital at the nick of time, that is why until now, I am deeply indebted to my friend who found out about DVT and told me to get up and see my doctor at once, instead of following the doctor's order of bed rest.

DVT just simply means formation of blood clots on your deep vein which is on your left leg that's directly connected to your heart. It is serious and rare for us filipinos and japanese too that is why it becomes more difficult to diagnose in the Philippines. It's common in America because of their mostly sedentary lifestyle. For the preggies, it usually happens on the 30th weeks or 8th month because that's why the tummy becomes heavy and the mother moves less from exhaustion. But it can be fixed by injecting blood thinners until giving birth. 

My case was rare because it happened in the earliest part of pregnancy and the Japanese doctors had to contact their american counterparts to confirm if it's safe to be on blood thinners for 8 months. They said they've never done it before, and take note, I was already at the best hospital in Japan and the government put me under the care of the best OB gyne in the country who was so popular he could only attend to complicated cases. 

DVT during pregnancy is serious and expensive, the daily injections alone costs P500/day and the cost of the laboratory tests needed is not for the faint of heart. During birth at least three doctors have to be present in the delivery room, namely the OB Gyne, the Immunologist and the pulmonary or heart doctor.

I just had the same blood works done on me few days ago, and I have normal results, protein S, protein C, etc... all normal. I just turn abnormal when I'm pregnant. 

To prevent it from happening to you, keep on moving and exercising. If you have to sit all day, one exercise you can do is stretch your heels up and down to keep the blood flowing on your legs. 

If you are pregnant and you think your left leg pain is caused by DVT, go see a cardiologist who can perform 2D Echo. That's the only way blood clot can be detected, not CT Scan or MRI.

Technology and Toddlers

If you are like me who is a kid of the 90's, don't you think we are the best parents for this techie generation of kids? I believe we are the few lucky ones who got to experience the evolution of technology, I always say I could not have been born at a better time. 

We started watching on a black and white television then suddenly our cartoon shows had colors with matching sliding cabinet doors to protect our TV from dust! and remember the first day we didn't have to stand up and turn the knob to change between the two channels available because we already had a REMOTE CONTROL! Then came the LCD, LED TV to the point that the government is urging us to throw away that vintage CRT TVs, because it can no longer process digital channels.

This is why I believe some parents nowadays do not allow their kids to touch any computer gadgets because we want them to experience those times when we survived and thrived without those techie stuff. 

But should we or should we not? That is the question many of us have in mind these days.

I know this topic can be controversial, before I begin let me tell you that I am NOT starting an argument here, I am not promoting Google or Youtube, I am not saying I'm right and this is what you should do. I respect how your raise your kids with all my heart because I know how a daunting task it is. I am just sharing a humble opinion that may help you make a sound decision.

My son is 4 years old and yes, we allow him to watch TV, he can actually control it with a smart remote, one time my techie genius girl friend was babysitting him when suddenly the tv conked out and she was surprised when my son told him "tita the tv crashed!" like an engineer reporting a bug (We never taught him that!). We let him watch YouTube in his Nexus Tablet, he plays Angry Birds, PokoPang by LINE with his ninongs and ninangs and at one point he tried Flappy Bird too. At first he watched tv for an unlimited time, it was helpful for me because Sponge Bob became my cheapest nanny while I do other housework until I observed that too much of it made him cranky and his mind became as dull as Sponge Bob. And so husband and I imposed a 30 minute a day time limit for tablets and an hour for TV watching plus we screen the shows he can watch. 

I've accepted the fact that they now live in a totally different generation from us, today technology is already part and parcel of the society they live in. We are software engineers, we live, breathe and create technology so we know there's no stopping into the future where information travels faster than lightning. During our time we learn ABC's for 4 hours, today in that same amount of time, they can already learn ABC, 123, geometry and geography altogether. They say kids nowadays have low attention span, maybe they just process information faster and as a result, they have a lot of extra time on their tiny hands.  The best thing we can do as a parent is guide and teach them how to use their time and this technology properly. We cannot deprive them of something that's already an essential part of the reality they are living in. Let's face it, it's going to be a more COMPETITIVE world for them out there, we have to condition their minds to be able to process information fast and effectively. 

But I believe that BALANCE is the key here. I have friends who like us give time limits for iPad usage and let their kids play and answer workbooks for the rest of the day. A friend's 4 yr old son is already playing the piano very well but he watches Youtube too about Disney Cars and toys. One smart father deleted all gaming apps in his son's iPad and replaced it with learning apps instead. Our neighbor only let his 4 year old son use his desktop computer with ABC Mouse Learning App and just recently approved Angry Birds for him to play. 

For husband and I, instead of being too strict, we have other options available for them. You know kids, the more you restrict them, the more curious they become. So we taught them the wonders of creating things with Play Doh and Legos, like yesterday my 2 year old son recreated a Lego House he has watched in Youtube! I let them go crazy with their colors and paints, I let them use furnitures in the house to create "machines", it may be a pain to clean up but if it encourages their creativity, I don't mind breaking my back picking up their mess. There's 24 hours in a day, I'm sure an hour or two with technology doesn't hurt while you let them play and explore other things for the rest of their waking hours.

they made a car launcher out of whatever

I let my son explore different topics on an online learning app, his dad even taught him to search thru voice command, but I also read hard copy books about planets, animals, etc.. to him so he will know that in the real world there are many options to learn. Unlike in our time when we only had books and encyclopedias, today the world is made up of matrix of digital information, if we look at it as glass half-full, it means there's a lot more ways now to learn and most of the time for free.

Math learning using the old-school blackboard (we ran out of chalk)

An open mind and time for the kids, can make them tech savvy but still keeping that creative minds we enjoyed while growing up. They can never play street games the way we did before, there are times they prefer to play with their computers or watch Jake the Pirate inside the house and that's when you invite them to take a walk outside the house, go to the park, show them birds, ants and worms much like how we discovered nature before so they will learn that there's fun under the sun. Toddler years is the time they are so in love with their parents so I'm sure they will prefer doing things with you than spend time with his techie gadgets. 

I know there are studies regarding the effects of technology with kids, I take it with a grain of salt because as parents we still know what's best. All I know is their future is going to be competitive and how you want them to develop an edge is all up to you.

note: I didn't tackle the use of social media here because my sons are still toddlers, I will worry about that in the years to come. For now, if you have a teenage kid and you think he/she is so good for not posting anything on Facebook, well I suggest you read about Snap Chat. ;p

Curly Hair

According to my husband I have the most curly hair he's ever seen, he's even promised me that he'd one day fund a research about changing curly hair to straight forever by tweaking the DNA structure. 

During my childhood I'd be teased as Sto. Nino or during my adolescent years, classmates especially the boys would compare my hair to a pubic hair, they'd tell me "pantihan mo buhok mo oi!" (you should wear a panty on your hair). It wasn't traumatic, I didn't take it as bullying because I agree with them. If I could tease myself without risking looking like a schizo, I would. I hated my hair. While the other straight haired girls could follow every hair trend there was, like layers and Demi Moore's bob, I was stuck to one hairstyle. Rebel as I was, I tried cutting my hair from bra line to ear-length! just imagine how epic fail that was so I gave up trying to style it and just settled on growing my hair long and tie it in ponytail forever.

That's my hair story. Fast forward to 20 years, I met a filipina hair stylist from San Francisco. I introduced to her the miracle of collagen powder and in exchange she invited me to visit her salon and she'd fix my hair. 

Before starting to do anything with my hair, she asked me what I want and how I wanted to cut it. It was refreshing because normally when I sit on a salon chair the stylist won't ask me anymore because with my curly hair it seems like there's already two template for that, either to just trim it or straighten it thru rebonding. But she was different so I confessed to her that I've always wanted a bangs ever since the Duran Duran era and I want a wash and wear hair style but still looking beautiful. AND I didn't have a budget for $$ hair rebonding. She was honest and shared to me a helpful wisdom, "girl there's no such thing as wash and wear and beautiful. If you want to look good you have to give time for it!", followed with "listen if you want bangs, you have to promise me first that you'd give 5 minutes for your hair before I cut it". She's a mom of two kids too so she understood me and taught me how I can fix my hair in max 5 minutes. We agreed and she started doing highlights on my hair, she cut the rebonded parts to define my curl better and for the first time ever, I had a side bangs! OMG! for the first time ever I left a salon feeling great and new without killing may hair's keratin. As an added bonus she taught me how to groom and shade my eyebrows and assured me that when I became an expert with my 5 minute routine, I'd be able to squeeze in that eyebrow grooming in that limited amount of time.

The 5 minutes routine includes blow drying my bangs, ironing it straight, putting some curl booster cream on the rest of my hair and I just leave it wet. If I'm pressed for time I just clip my bangs with a tiny hair clamp, put some curl cream and go. Since then I've said goodbye to my ponytails, if you ever see me in a ponytail now, it's because that's the style I like and not because I have to.  I'm loving my frizz-free hair now and started paying attention to the many available hair creams for curly hair. I didn't know that there were creams for activating curls and to loosen curls for days when you want beach waves.

I never thought that having a curly hair is actually an advantage because you can change hairstyle any time you want. If I have time I can straighten my hair with iron, or I can be super curly or I can have beach waves if I want to!

with the curl booster

my version of beach waves

I'm loving it! with only 5 minutes tops needed, I still get to prepare my kids without looking losyang. If you're a curly sue like me, you don't need to go hair rebonding every single time. Get the right cut and color. But first, embrace your curls and give a little time for yourself.

before, I manage my frizzy hair with stick straight middle-part and ponytail 

after, now I just blow-dry my bangs, and with curl cream for the rest, it's all set

when there's no time for blow dry or any kaartehan, just put curl booster on wet hair, when it's dry tie your hair up on a high ponytail. The curl booster will create that messy, curly ponytail. If your hair has highlights, that will give spunk to your drab hairstyle.

Now my husband can keep his money he's planning to fund his silly research.

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