RELENTLESS FORWARD COMMOTION
RELENTLESS FORWARD COMMOTION

PLEASE READ! DVT & Endurance Athletes

by 30 Comments

Last Updated on September 29, 2019 by Heather Hart, ACSM EP, CSCS

It appears I’m full of PSA posts around here lately, but this one is probably a subject that has NEVER crossed most of your minds…yet as endurance athletes, you NEED to be aware of. Please, please, please take a few minutes and read this. 

First off, I *must* take a very serious moment to be a mother hen and remind you …if you EVER feel in your heart of hearts, your intuition, your Jedi-mind, whatever you want to call it, that something is NOT RIGHT with your body…get checked. Don’t worry about the nurses or doctors thinking you are a hypochondriac or over reacting or whatever. It’s their job to make sure you are OK, and frankly, it’s better to be a bit embarrassed than it is to be DEAD.

Long story short (and I apologize to my sister now for making her business even more public than she already has, but I feel it’s important, and I’m sure she would agree) running saved my sisters life this week.

Rewind a few weeks: she raced Vineman 70.3 in California, and a few days later made a cross country flight. A day or two after the flight, she called me complaining of calf pain that went away when sitting. My GUT instinct was deep vein thrombosis (DVT) as the calf pain that goes away when sitting is a red flag for intermittent claudication. Her instinct said the same, especially since she knew of a fellow triathlete who had recently had this happen , so after we talked, she went to the doctor. They gave her the all clear, she was fine. It left my mind and hers as well. 

Well, FAST FORWARD a few weeks. Out of nowhere, her running was becoming more and more difficult, and she was struggling to breathe. As she told me, Wednesday morning she woke up feeling crappy. That same morning, she took a look at her Garmin’s stats for the past week. Over the course of a week, she went from running an easy pace while carrying on conversation with a friend….to running an incredibly difficult, labored pace that was 2 minutes per mile SLOWER than the run earlier that week. Her gut instinct told her SOMETHING was not right.  There was no reason running this pace should feel so hard.  So she went to the doctor.

What she had guessed might be some sort of allergy, asthma, or virus….turned out to be two very large pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs). She didn’t realize it at the time she walked into the doctor, that her life was in critical condition, and she was immediately admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with strict instructions to NOT MOVE.
By the grace of GOD , she is now feeling FINE and out of the ICU.  Resting up in the hospital, pumped full of anticoagulants, and told she’ll be released Monday and back to normal activity very soon.  Had she NOT followed her instincts and gone to the doctor when she did…well, I’d prefer to not even think about that.  We are very very very (times a billion verys) VERY BLESSED!

So listen up: here are the facts my friends: 

  • DVT affects about 2 million Americans a year. Failure to correctly diagnose blood clot formation causes up to 100,000 deaths a year. [Clinical Advisor, June 2004, page 53]
  • 85% of air travel thrombosis victims are athletic, usually endurance athletes[www.airhealth.org/athletes.html, July 11, 2004]
  • If not treated, DVT can lead to pulmonary embolism or stroke caused by blood clots moving from the legs to the heart or the brain. Both conditions can lead to death.
  • An athlete does not have to fly to be susceptible to DVT. The physical constraints imposed during an air flight can be present in everyday life, but not recognized. (car rides, office chairs, sitting around all weekend because your marathon legs hurt?)
  • Often there are no symptoms until several days after the flight and the victim has no idea what is wrong. DVT is usually mistaken for a cramp
 
What you can do to prevent DVT:
I didn’t want to post this to freak everyone out, but this is something that even I was unaware of to THIS extent. I have been taught to be aware of DVT with clients while personal training, but always imagined them as sedentary or elderly people. I never realized or was told that if anyone should be aware of DVT, it is us endurance athletes.  And I’m pretty sure that 95% of you reading this fall in that category.

So, now you know too.  Thank you for reading. PLEASE share this information with all of your endurance friends as well. And stay HEALTHY my friends!

 More information on DVT or WHY athletes are more susceptible :  
 http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/health/your-last-tri-race-clot-die-001509.php
Heather Hart, ACSM EP, CSCS
Website | + posts

Heather Hart is an ACSM certified Exercise Physiologist, NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), UESCA certified Ultrarunning Coach, RRCA certified Running Coach, co-founder of Hart Strength and Endurance Coaching, and creator of this site, Relentless Forward Commotion.   She is a mom of two teen boys, and has been running and racing distances of 5K to 100+ miles for over a decade.  Heather has been writing and encouraging others to find a love for fitness and movement since 2009.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Yikes.

    So glad your sister is all right. How scary for you all.

    Thanks for sharing this very important information – I always assumed that because I am active, I could not be affected.

    Now I know the opposite is true.

    I am going to pay more attention.

    Reply

  3. Glad to hear your sis is alright. And I agree that listening to your body is step #1 to continuing to be healthy.

    I’ve got a flight to and from Vegas for a race in September and I’m already planning compression socks to wear, exercises to do, how often to get up and “go to the bathroom” just to keep moving… As athletes, we think we’re invincible because we’re “so healthy,” but the truth is we only have a more attuned focus on how we feel. Use it to your advantage!

    Definitely a worth while post! Again, glad to hear everything is ok with your sis!!

    Reply

  4. I am so glad to hear that your sister is ok! Thank you for sharing this information. I had NO IDEA that endurance athletes were more susceptible to DVT than others.

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  5. thank god your sister is okay!!! 🙂 I have a friend that has a DVT from her first pregnancy.. she is an endurance athlete and has to monitor it closely. My husband travels internationally quite a bit.. think I’ll be getting him some compression gear!

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  10. That is so scary!!

    I am glad your sister is ok! I am definitely going to spread the word on this! Sometimes endurance athletes (including myself) feel that they can conquer anything and not get hurt which is definitely not the case! We have to be careful too!

    Reply

  13. Thank God your sister is okay!

    I, too, have developed a DVT. I am an endurance athlete as well, but after my first pregnancy…10 days later…I developed a large DVT in my left leg. I later learned that I have a blood clotting disorder which runs in the family but I am the first to have something happen. (My sister has three kids and my mom has four kids and both have had multiple surgeries…) My sister was tested and has the same disorder..

    Sorry for babbling but really pay attention and if something not right go to the ER.

    Lyndsey
    http://www.ohio-runner.breakingthetape.com

    PS I have been reading your blog for some time and this is my first post

    Reply

  17. thank you so much for sharing! you have really helped a lot of people by sharing this! glad your sis is ok! what did they do for her in the icu?

    Reply

  24. Wow Heather, that is so incredibly scary! I am SO happy to hear that your sister is all right after going through such an awful scare. Thank you for all the insight, and I will definitely be keeping all of your suggestions in mind. Thanks.

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  25. Thanks goodness your sister is OK. My husband has a cross-country flight next week and I’ll remind him to wear some good anti-dvt socks.

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  27. Praise God that your sister is ok, how scary!! I am so thankful for other running friends that I can learn things like this from-never would have known!

    Reply

  29. So glad your sister is alright and seeing that I am flying almost immediately after two of my races this year, I am buying the socks! I am also hydrating, walking up and down the aisles, and whatever else I have to do!

    Reply

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