Post Hospital Advice needed

[PraetorianX]

So, I turned 40 back in mid July. Shortly thereafter I had some problems with Kidney stones. I had a stent put in my right kidney and the Sonic Lithotripsy (sp) done on my left. After a week of being sore from the sonic treatment, I had experienced a very painful sharp pain on my right upper side, shortness of breath and my chest hurt as well. On top of that, my left leg felt like it was going to explode.

I went to the emergency room and was immediately admitted to the hospital in the ICU. It turns out I had blood clots in my lungs (both sides), with a large one on my right side where the main pain was. Also, they told me the left leg pain was due to my leg being "one big blood clot". The large blood clot has actually done some lung damage that they say will take a long time to recover from. I was in the ICU for 6 days and then moved to a regular room and discharged the following day.

It was a scary incident and woke me up to let me know I need to take better care of myself. The doctor said that had I been older or if I had been a smoker, that I would not be here anymore. Needless to say, my wife was a wreck over all of this and so was I. There was one surgeon that put in an IVC Filter to protect the clots in my leg from moving upward to the lungs again or to the heart or brain. Now I have numbness in my right leg on the side where they put in the IVC Filter.

So, why am I writing this? I was wondering if anyone had any experiences with this kind of thing and if so, how are you doing now? What can I expect to come? That kind of thing. The doctors want me to go on a low carb diet and cardio healthy diet, which I am trying to do, but I find after years of eating whatever, that this is harder to do than I thought.

So, can you help me along and give advice? I know you all to be a good bunch of people, so I am hoping you can help out.

Thanks.

[ginkgo]

Here is a strategy. Totally forget that low carb nonsense. Why? It means high fat and high protein and that has already nearly killed you. Try to avoid the bad carbs and eat good carbs. Have no idea which is which? Don't give me that. Processed foods like pasta, cake, candy and bread are bad carbs.

Good carbs are fruits and vegetables. Are you saying they want you to eat low amounts of these?????? That is so stupid. Unprocessed fruits and vegetabkes have plenty of fiber.

Search everywhere to find fruits that you like. Eat on an empty stomach at the beginning of your meal. Then eat the other foods after the fruit. I have a webpage going into great detail explaining why berries are the best food for cardiovascular health. Grapes contain resveratrol.

Then next on your meal of whatever crap you want to eat, you eat a salad. After that stuff yourself full of artery clogging crap. Try to get a mix of raw, organic greens. Greens have an artery cleaning effect. Do you need a link to the research? Put in some tomato with lycopene in it to help arteries. Try to put in lots of raw vegetables. Peppers are very good for the heart. Hot peppers are great for heart health.

Then eat all the crap you want after eating as much of the fruit and salad as you can. That will minmise the damage. Also get some exercise like walking briskly.

For snacks eat nuts with no salt. They are great for heart health. Also do you know what non-food that you eat is the worst thing for arteries? Webmd.com has an article saying that cutting salt is as good as quitting smoking for heart health. So DASH to your store for foods without salt. Why did I capitalize DASH? Do I have some type of disorder?

[PraetorianX]

Thanks for the info. Just a note, I just got back from the Hemotologist and the result was that I have a genetic predisposition for blot clots. Fun fun.

So now I am on Coumadin for the rest of my life. Green leafy vegatables have an adverse effect on your coumadin levels (protime level), but only if you eat a lot of it. So I will have to watch that kind of thing, but I appreciate the links and the info.

[JamesKnochel]

I disagree with a lot of Ginkgo's points.

1. Salt is perfectly healthy. It should be balanced with potassium... But studies have found that low-salt is deadlier than salting your food to taste.

2. Nuts have a tendency to go rancid quickly. You can have "1/2 a handful" of almonds a day... But that's it.

I would guess that you have an excess of estrogenic activity in your body, which led to the clots.... Xenoestrogens - chemicals that have estrogen-like activity - are rather common as pesticides... Did you pour some weed-n-feed on your lawn? (trivia fact: just learned that Canada banned combination fertilizer & weeding products)

Or maybe you eat too much fried food, or other form of vegetable oil. That disables the body's clot-removing enzymes too.

-James

[bluestar]

Good wholemeal bread in my estimation doesn't come into the "bad" category of carbs at all. It is packed with fiber and nutrients. Likewise Potatoes and sweet potatoes (potatoes baked with skin) -what's wrong with them? Zilch.
Check out brown rice too. A good one like an organic long grain variety. Again -fiber and b vitamins etc

Good foods for you:
All fruits and vegetables. Make fruits and vegetables about 60% or more of what you eat each day. Tofu, oily fish, potatoes, wholemeal bread, brown rice, occasionally (if you like meat) some extra-lean meat (venison is excellent) or chicken breast. Plenty of fiber-foods, avocadoes, nuts are OK and pumpkin seeds are great. Dark chocolate as a treat. A little alcohol is fine, just not much. Plenty of water and juices, and herb teas or green teas.

Cut out or drastically cut down on all salty snacks, cheese, cut out dairy like milk (you really really don't need milk! Use other things to get the vitamins and calcium) forget anything processed or made with white flour and all the additives etc.

Regular walking, every day, in all weather will definitely help you. Start with short walks and build up.