WorldThrombosisDay

First of all, thank you for that very important question. This is based on my experience and my own protocol after a conversation with my doctor.

Definitely keep blood flow stimulated, which means don't live a sedentary lifestyle.

Make sure to get up and stretch often, especially when you're traveling. Think when you're driving to work, long distance, air travel. Make sure to not sit in one position for long periods of time.

I like to get up about every 90 minutes and one of my favorite exercises that I can do seated are called ankle clocks. I turn my ankles in circles forward and backward. I also write the alphabet forward and backward with my big toe--it's a big time blood stimulator.

Nearly 80% of the American population is said to be chronically dehydrated. Staying hydrated is so important.

That's a great question. Thank you for asking. Does it frighten me less? Yes it does frighten me less. That is solely based on what I have been through in my life. I learned how short life really is when my single parent mom dropped dead right in front of me when I was only 20 years old from a sudden death pulmonary embolism (PE). I was immediately on my own. My wife also died of brain cancer in 2013. With the help of grief counseling and post-clot PTSD counseling - as well as my faith - I learned that truly you have to live every day like it's your last.

We are all going to die, and while we can extend our lives by following certain protocol - whether it's blood clot prevention, early cancer screening etc. There's no point in my dwelling on it and being consumed by anxiety every day. A day wasted is a day you will never get back. Once I put all of those together, I sort of lost my fear of dying. That has helped me emotionally big time. As far as that's related to blood clots, I honestly don't think I'll ever suffer an abnormal blood clot again because I'm aware, I'm educated, I live preventive, and that's how I choose to live my life.

I have good insurance and I've been lucky to have the same doctors for a while, and I know this is not always the case. I recommend people always advocating for themselves.

You are right to ask this. The risk of blood clots after Covid-19 infection has been found to persist for up to 6 months but it does get less over time. Women are generally at increased risk of thrombosis in pregnancy, particularly in the 6 weeks after delivery. So I think your higher risk period would be over now, but it is always important to keep mobile, hydrated and do regular gentle exercises.

Aplastic anaemia is when your body stops producing enough new red blood cells. It can often be caused by immune disease and Covid-19 is known to cause strong immunological reactions, which is why your question is very sensible. However there has not been an increase in cases of aplastic anaemia over and above the normal background population rates, during the pandemic.

You've raised an important point. Covid-19 infection is itself strongly associated with blood clots. The blood clots seen after the adeno-viral vector vaccines are extremely rare and this should not deter people from having the vaccine to protect them against covid-19 infection. If symptoms such as headache or abdominal pain start 5 to 30 days after an adeno-viral vector vaccine, a blood count can be checked to ensure the platelet count is normal. Keep up the great work you are doing!