Unexpected victims...

Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism can affect ANYONE at ANY age. Click the link to hear the story of three women who all suffered from DVT/PE. Their stories are a reminder of just how serious this problem is and how important it is to be educated. It could save your life.

http://www.thisisserious.org/media/videos.php

Another death attributed to PE

Law & Order star Dennis Farina died on Monday at the age of 69 from a pulmonary embolism. Check the story out by clicking the link below.

http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/law-order-star-dennis-farina-dead-69-6C10707427

Updates

The past few weeks I've been combing through the literature that exists about DVT, PE, awareness, education, social media, public health, etc. I've read numerous journal articles and have a substantial amount of my literature review completed.

I wanted to share with you all some interesting things that I've found so far:

1. In 25% of people who develop a pulmonary embolism the first sign/symptom that they have a PE is sudden death. (CDC) No matter how many times I read this statistic it still blows my mind each time.

2. There's a great journal article that identifies various DVT resources that physicians can direct their patients to.  (The only problem here is it's not really accessible to the general public) It's entitled Deep vein thrombosis -- online methods of patient education. (Crisan, Crisan, Buzdugan, Vesa, & Pestrea, 2010) 

3. In 2008 the US Surgeon General published a "call to action to prevent DVT/PE." It outlines the problem and calls for three major things to be done in the future related to DVT/PE. The first of which is to have the public know about and understand DVT/PE. (USDHHS) And that's what we're trying to do!

4. One study of 230 post-Cesarean women found that only 46% of them knew what DVT/PE was. Of those 46% less than 25% knew pregnancy and C-section were risk factors for blood clots. (Alzoubi, Khassawneh, Obeidat, Asfoor, & Al-azzam, 2013) This demonstrates the absolute loophole in the system. How is it that every single woman in this study had just had a C-section, every single one of them was at risk for blood clots, and not even half of them knew this?! 

There's just a glimpse of some of the information I've found. Here's just a few other updates too. Our Twitter account is just getting up and running so I'll be sure to post more about that here soon! Also a new website it in the works as well and will hopefully be up by the end of the summer! Keep following along. :) 

Calculate your risk with this great app!

My advisor told me that she had heard of this app that could calculate your risk for a deep vein thrombosis or a pulmonary embolism, and I decided I had to check it out!

It's referred to as a Wells Score. You check off factors that apply to you, and it generates a number that can tell you how at risk you or a loved one is for a dvt/pe.

  <-- iPhone app            Android app --->  

It's a free app that you can download from the Apple store or the Android store.
Download it yourself and give it a try!

Famous People Affected By Blood Clots

So many people around the world suffer from blood clots every year. In the US millions of people are affected by deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism (the focus of my research, although there are many other types of blood clots). An estimated 100,000-300,000 die every year in the US alone from DVT/PE. It can happen to anyone, politicians, professional athletes, or just your average person.

Among those affected are many famous people including:

David Bloom, late NBC reporter
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2006-03-06-media-mix_x.htm

Hillary Clinton, former First Lady and Secretary of State
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/01/16269742-hillary-clinton-remains-hospitalized-but-expected-to-recover?lite

Dick Cheney, former Vice President
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17470491/ns/politics/t/cheney-treated-hospital-blood-clot/#.UZWOXCvwIso

Regis Philbin, talk show host
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/people/2010-05-14-regis-philbin_N.htm

Adam McQuaid, NHL player, Boston Bruins
http://nesn.com/2012/12/report-adam-mcquaid-underwent-surgery-for-blood-clot-bruins-defenseman-still-recovering/

Joey Sindelar, professional golfer
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-tours-news/blogs/local-knowledge/2009/11/champions-tour-rallies-around-an-ailing-sindelar.html

Jamie Reno, journalist
http://therenodispatch.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-i-survived-multiple-blood-clots.html?showComment=1368753730410#c3762798832403910092 

Serena Williams, professional tennis player
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=6196383

Frida Kahlo, late artist
http://www.fridakahlofans.com/chronologyenglish.html

Jimmy Stewart, late actor, "It's a Wonderful Life"
http://www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/GlendaleObituaries/jamesstewart.htm

10 years later...watch this video!

http://www.today.com/video/today/51449365#51449365

Ten years ago today NBC 10 reporter David Bloom died of a DVT/PE. His wife Melanie is now the spokeswoman for the Coalition to Prevent DVT. For my post this week there was a tribute to David on the Today Show. David was not even 40 years old and he was in good health. His blood clot formed while sitting in a tank overseas. Neither David nor his wife knew of this condition or knew that he was at risk. It's the perfect example of why people should care about this...it can happen to anyone. It really highlights why this is such a big issue. Take 4 minutes to check it out, its moving.

The Big Day

Today Ericka, Ali, and I all presented our proposals to the nursing curriculum committee. All of us were approved to continue on with our projects!!!  

We met with 6-10 nursing professors and several students who participate in the committee. We all sat around a table and informally presented our ideas. I think we were all a bit nervous at first, but it went very well.

The next thing all three of us have to do is create our surveys and get them approved by the RIC Institutional Review Board. We all set different deadlines for that. My goal is to have my survey created and approved by September. I also plan to have the literature review done by then (looks like I'll be having a fun summer), and I will distribute my survey in October. I am going to analyze all my data in Nov/Dec and start to create educational materials. Once the new year begins, I'll be piloting an education campaign. I'm really excited for where this project is headed.

Now that the three of us are all set with proposal approval we can focus on helping the rest of our class to formulate theirs! I think that's about all the updating for now.

:)