Today is one week post op and I feel pretty lousy. I noticed a hard, raised vein on my arm about 1 1/2 in in length. Now it is about 3" long and not quite as hard, could it be a blood clot????

How much can you usually drink on the full liquids?? After about 1/4 cup I start to feel bloated. I don't know what to think, I feel bloated all the time so I spend much of my time eating GAsX and holding a hot pad on my stomach. A near starvation diet can't be healthy so I have been trying to get in some nutrition but I am so uncomfortable and feel rather grouchy today I also experienced for the first time ever a cramp in the FRONT of my leg..... lack of Potasium??

I got home from Mexico on June 8th and on Sun., June 11th I learned that my niece had passed away at the age of 21, just 6 months older than my daughter and they had been very close growing up.... Today, Tues. I learned that my daughter who lives in Korea, where her husband is stationed in the military, is flying home tomorrow for the funeral and is not planning to go back but will be staying at our house until her husband recieves new orders in September. I would love that except that I haven't been able to do much for a long time and her room is chuck full of boxes of things that I can't move.

My quiet recuperation time has been turned on it's ear, my usual stress "control" is eating oops, can't go there....... so what do I do???

:help: CAN ANYBODY HELP ?????? Rett

Umm, got as far as the raised vein. You need to call your surgeons office or go to the er. This is not the place to recieve medical advice. I hope all goes well for you.

haha... this isn't funny... but I did the exact same thing, waterlily! I read about the raised vein/blood clot fear, and was amazed there was more questions! That's enough of a post in itself.

Don't worry about anything else until you get that checked out!!! And let us know what happens! Good luck :hug:

Rett, I'm praying for you right now, Please let us know how you are doing, and let the room at home and the cares that it brings lay, all those things can be taken care of later!! I hope you are at the ER right now!!!

But seriously now... can blood clots been seen like Rett was describing? I'd never considered that.

That would FREAK me out! Especially being so close to surgery, that's probably what I would think too. Yikes.

I hope you're getting it taken care of as we speak also!

I had the raised vein post-op. Please call your own doc but I will share what I was told to do. I called the consulting nurse who explained to me that this was normal at the IV site especially when I had been given so much Morphine. Morphine is irritating to the vein. I did have clots there so I chewed baby aspirin to thin the blood a little for a few days making sure to rinse the pouch well after since we aren't supposed to use aspirin with the band.

It went away in about a week. The scariest part was that the clot migrated.

Maybe your doc has a better option. Call 'em and find out.

Make sure to take a Multivitamin like chewable Centrum or Flintstones complete. That might help with the cramping and general body "freak out"

About the arriving daughter... She should be able to not only help you lots, but can move boxes too. Sorry to hear about your niece, having family around you will be a good thing.

Wow! Lots of stuff going on. I'm with the others on this one. Call your surgeon and take care of yourself first. It will be great to see daughter, but she can manage to make space for herself. You can NOT be expected to take care of her right now. If she's a grown married woman, surely she understands a new post-op patient can't be clearing out a room for her. Hopefully she's an appreciative daughter that will give her mom some TLC! :confused:

Terry

But seriously now... can blood clots been seen like Rett was describing?

I've only had superficial bloodclots (thanks to friggin' BCPs), and in really unusual places (inner thigh, top of my foot, etc.) but my mother has been hospitalized more than once for DVT in her legs. Neither of us have ever seen them as raised veins. In my case I could clearly see the effected part of the vein, but the vein never bulged or anything. In mom's case it never bulged, but she'd get an angry red area on her leg exactly over the vein. Not to mention we've both always been able to tell where it is just by feeling the skin - it gets really hot - so hot you don't have to actually touch the skin, you can feel the heat radiating off. And you can always tell by the pain. People who haven't had them don't realize - blood clots hurt! A lot! When mom had hers, she could barely even crawl, let alone walk. Even though mine were superficial, and tiny in comparison, the slightest pressure was close to unbearable.

I have a blood clot on the back of my hand from where they put the IV in. I'm almost four months out of surgery and it's still there. Docs say it's in a "superficial" vein and therefor there is no worry.

That being said, I would absolutely get it checked out, as I did, to make sure it's nothing to worry about.

Good luck.

Ok, so Rett...any news? I have been checking back on this because i have a history of blood clots and wanted to make sure you were alright. Any news or anything on it? Did you go to your doc's office and have it looked at? what did they say?

I had a knot in my wrist where the IV was out in for 2 months after surgery. It felt like a hard ball, I showed it to my DR at every apt. It finally went away but we all kept an eye on it.

What you are describing sounds like thrombophlebitis which is an inflammation of the superficial veins. It's pretty common after IV drugs and can become very red, swollen and painful. Warm, moist heating pad is generally the treatment, but as the others say, please consult your doc.

I have had this in a vein all the way up my arm. It hurts and makes you generally feel bad all over. I also have a history of phlebitis and DVT in the legs and Pulmonary Embolism. These are not necessarily connected.

See these previous posts - http://www.lapbandtalk.com/search.php?searchid=437546

Rett I hope things are going well and you've seen your doc. I've had a blood clot (Deep Vein Thrombosis) in my leg. It was caused by foot surgery, BCPs and a clotting problem I didn't know I had. After my foot surgery I was immobile, unlike the lapband surgery where I was up walking only a few hours after the procedure. Anyway, blood clots HURT and I could not flex my foot and it hurt to walk. I'm praying you don't have one and it is just something related to your IV.