That is an excellent caution for us all, Wayne.
I used to do a LOT of traveling on business during my career ... often
long (like 12 hours) flights to Asia. I found myself getting occasional
blood clots in the surface veins in one or the other of my lower calves
that caused VERY painful red streaks and would slowly progress up my leg
over the next several days. The enlarged vein was as hard as a piece of
rebar, and it would often take a couple of weeks for them to go away.
They would on rare occasions progress all the way up to my groin, but
never further.
Ironically, I was in the best health of my life back then. I exercised
a lot, played sports, did a lot of late night running after work, and
did weekend 70 mile training runs on my bicycle (three times top three
at the Arizona State Time Trial Championships in my age group).
However, I typically did not drink enough fluids, had low body fat (less
cushioning of my thighs), and my blood naturally clots easily (a genetic
trait I inherited from my mother).
I learned to do four things that collectively made a huge difference:
1. If I am going to be sitting for a long time I try to spend as much
of the time slouched down so that the bulk of my weight is on the back
of my butt and not on my upper thighs.
2. If a can't stay slouched back (such as during a ham radio contest) I
set the height of the chair low enough that my legs prop the back of my
thighs up off the chair as much as possible.
3. I try to stay hydrated better.
3. I take a baby aspirin daily. I've been told that aspirin is an
antiplatelet, as opposed to an anticoagulant like heparin or warfarin.
An aspirin shouldn't be needed for most people, but my blood clots VERY
easily and I'd rather not have a stroke because it might not kill me.
Take care all,
Dave AB7E
On 5/2/2025 10:43 AM, Wayne Burdick wrote:
Hi all,
No, DVT is not, in this context, the rate of change of voltage over time.
But it is about things not changing enough.
I was thinking the other day about how many sequential hours we all spend
sitting on a cross-country flight. This was on my mind because I have one
coming up -- to Dayton, Ohio. Then I thought about an article I read
recently, reminding me how sitting for long periods of time just isn't good
for human anatomy. They say you need to get up every 20 minutes or so and
walk around, stretch, feed your pets, get the mail, whatever. Anything but
sit for hours on end. Pun intended.
Why? DVT...deep-vein thrombosis. (I hear you saying, "WTF?" But in
fairness, I did put "OT" in the subject line.)
In short, prolonged inactivity can cause DVT and complications thereof.
I'll spare you the details, as I'm not qualified (just Google it), and I've
never had it myself. Let's just say the consequences can be scary.
Then I thought of ham radio. At times we're at the inert,
four-paws-in-the-air, bleeding edge of the bell curve in terms of sitting.
Not just for hours. For some events it's large fractions of a day.
With renewed awareness I now use nannyware to periodically break me out of
a techno-trance.
Though avoidance of DVT was never a stated goal for our product offerings,
it's a happy coincidence that our portable gear gives some of us another
excuse to get out of our chairs. In hindsight I can see the benefit to our
customers at trade shows: they're more than their share of ageless,
timeless, energetic and athletic.
Anything that encourages movement is in this category, of course, from
high-band HTs to bicycle mobile to climbing your tower.
My advice...keep on truckin'. And thanks for the bandwidth.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
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