Originally Posted by longing4piedmont
Xeno
I’ve been where you are now. A year and half ago I had my first DVT and PE. I was given a ten percent chance of living the next 24 hours. As you can see, I’m still here, even after having a second one last summer. I’ve missed four months of traveling in the last eighteen months as a result.
I too have gone to several specialists, and while all think that my flying schedule contributed to the condition, there is no concrete medical proof that flying causes a DVT. You will not be successful in convincing DL or a court that flying any type of aircraft caused your condition, much less an RJ. If someone is telling you other wise they are quite simply misinformed.
With that being said, I still fly but avoid what I call Barbie Jets with a passion. They are cramped if you are 6’3”. Sometimes they simply can not be avoided. I still fly six to eight segments a week, (next week it is ten). I take my coumadin and I get up and walk every 45 minutes to and hour. I do my leg exercises in my seat when I can remember. My only other choice is to not fly. I continue to do so because I love my job and I can’t make anywhere close to money I make doing what I do. I realize I take my life in my own hands every time I fly because my leg still swells to almost twice it’s normal size every time fly for more than an hour.
My advice is to drop it as it will go no where. Take your medicine and get up and walk. Your only other choice is to no longer fly.
Your post not only evokes great compassion from me because but also fear that your strict observance of DVT/PE rules would actually protect you during all this flying. I would not be able to keep your job since my DVTs are not going away and new ones keep forming after travel-driving or flying. I have a vena cava filter, but the two times my own cardiologist rushed me to ER --once in an ambulance -- to check for a new PE is proof to me that they know these things don't work all the time. And as I have already said, one can be at risk at home if they do not follow the same rules made for travel.
I was in ICU for 3 days being constantly told that the outcome was uncertain. Then I had a pulmonologist that for a year told me I could drop dead suddenly even with the filter, compression hose Coumadin, moving around at least once an hour, etc. My original hospitalization did not follow a flying trip, but a long driving trip. However, I was told by more than one specialist to avoid flying for a while then when I resumed to start domestic and when possible stay away from RJS. When going international, also avoid couch if at all possible esp if the flight is of any substantial length. I spent a week at Mayo Clinic in MN and don't remember if they confirmed any of these instructions but I do have a general memory that they wanted me to conform to the rules to make sure there were no more complications.
Having been to 50 states and 50 countries this new reality has been a shock to my system, but it also threatens my job. I have locked myself into Delta and don't know how to break into another carrier with the same benefits.