A Last Update for TraumaMama911:
Cardiohypertrophy can mean lowered stroke volume and low output. It depends on the kind of hypertrophy, and the elasticity of the heart muscle. Some athletes have hypertrophic hearts (which literally means “bigger sized”) that are very efficient and have above average outputs. I, on the other hand, missed out on getting hypertrophy as a sequella of my illness (at least, according to my last ultrasound). I could still develop it later. My heart murmur is more probably related to damage to the valves because of blood clot formation, though that’s just another one of those things that I’ll probably never know the answer to for sure.
And compartment bleeds – they are totally cool phenomena so long as you aren’t the one experiencing it! Muscles are wrapped in fascia that helps the different muscle bundles slide along against each other. This wrapping means that if a vessel is injured inside the muscle bundle, the bleeding can be trapped within the muscle, causing damage.
In my case, I received a direct kick square in the middle of my right thigh, directly over the rectus muscle. The muscle swelled because of this kick, and an artery was crushed and bled into the muscle. Keep in mind that arteries are high pressure systems, veins low pressure systems. The pressure from the swelling muscle and the pooling blood effectively created a tourniquet that cut off my veins’ ability to carry blood out of the muscle. Intact arteries, being high pressure, were able to keep bringing blood into the muscle though, so more and more blood just kept coming into the rectus. It just kept swelling and and swelling within the fascia. Remember also that I was on coumadin when I was kicked, so that I bled more easily than the average person would have. Eventually, the swelling crushed the muscle in the fascia, and that section of muscle died. It had to be removed surgically (along with a grapefruit-sized blood clot that formed within the rectus).
Hope that answers your question.
No need to apologize for the length of the entry. Though i have read many of those details before, i welcome the chance to hear it again, and learn more about a friend.
Happy Birthday.
Happy 5th Birthday, may you have many many more.
Happy Birthday!! 🙂
Enjoy the night out.
You’re in good company.
Time is precious.
_|m/ ADM
life is so precious.
Happy #5!
Happy LIFE day!
Alli
Wow. I knew a lot of the details of this very special day, but I had no idea just how bad it really was. I’m so glad that you are alive to tell this story and remind me to appreciate just how good I have it. I actually got tears in my eyes picturing that bottle sitting on your desk. Thank you again for sharing. Love, Jen
P.S. Happy Birthday! I’ll have a little toast in your honor tonight! LOL.
Oh.. and about the talking to the ex about what he’s screwed up… I agree that it’s not good for me to do. I need to kick someone’s butt to get them to just take some responsibility for those thoughts and speak up to him themselves. I can’t always smooth everything over after all.
I never know what to say to reading something like this. Touching is close enough though.
oh and happy B-day
I’ll be sure to make a toast to my favorite amphibian tonight. Happy 5th rebirthday
Wow. What a story.
Happy 5th Birthday, Salamander.
Wow. What a story. Leaves me abit breathless thinking of what you went through. How scary! You how very lucky you are to be alive and it definitely needs celebrating. Hope I am not being too nosy, but I am curious as to what way your heart is damaged? It is muscle damage to the atrium, ventricles, or values? I recoginize some of the drugs you took as emzymes (ends in "ase"). The cardiac system is one of my favorite systems.
Re your comment, I thought the same thing. Was hoping he would be at practice last night.
Happy Birthday!
I loved reading the whole story in one place. No need to apologize for writing some of it again. It’s worth writing about several times. I too got a tear in my eye and my hair stood up on my arms when I read about the i.v. bottle. I am so glad that this experience has helped you to appreciate your life.
Happy Birthday!!
~QE
What an amazing story…! I read it all and especially the hanging from the ceiling experience you had, sounds so bloody scary.
*HUG* Happy birthday…
Love,
cur
Just to lighten the mood a bit, when I first read your post and saw Cardiomyopathy, my first thought was that it was a disease Great Danes got, it couldn’t have happened to you!
I guess I have gotten so tunnel visioned watching for all the danger signs of what my beautiful babies may be in danger from I forget that most diseases are not isolated to one breed, or species!
Hopefully as with my Danes, diet and exercise will help to avoid and/or overcome any future problems for you!
Alli
(who unbelievably has something other than Hugh on the brain most of the time! Although he would be even more perfect if he owned a Dane…)
All i can say is WOWOWOOW!
You are one amazing and strong person!
The entry was not long it is grippin to read. Meaning could not stop as it grabbed my heart to know all this happened to someone I barely know.
Amazing you were able to put it in words and informative to me because my husband went through some of the problems that happened to you.
Please do not hesitate to write about anything that has happened to you, it is a healing way for ones inner self.
many soft huggs to you,
ladi
hey, WOW well done!!!
*blink….blink*
{{{{{{{{{{{{sal}}}}}}}}}}}}}
happy birthday, sal. i’m speechless. my chest ached and mind reeled reading the whole thing. i wanted to know you didn’t go through that alone, and i’m glad you had your sisters and have all of those signatures to prove it.
i’m glad you fought to stay with us.
You weren’t the only one lucky. The world is a better place for people like you. Happy rebirthday.
happy anniversary! Enjoy your evening out..
Thank you for sharing!
Everything you wrote about is very familar to me after going through the cardiovascular system. We studied cardiohypertrophy-If I am on target, this means you also have a low cardiac output and stroke volume?
Can you stand one more question from a curious anatomy student? How does a compartment bleed damage muscles? I am trying to figure out the phyisology part…
I think your story is remarkable. Again, Happy Birthday. 🙂
(I had a patient who was stabbed in the chest and had a sucking chest wound (among other injuries). He just turned 3 a few months ago. He calls me up every year to thank me for his birthday, which makes me feel wonderful.)
Lastly, each pound of adipose takes a mile of blood vessels to supply? I know that there are enough vessels in the body to circle the earth 4 times (according to my book). In my case that must be 100 times.
Sue
That’s a nightmare of a story.
It’s precisely the sort of thing everyone believes will never happen to them.
Maintaining your mental and spiritual health is made harder as well by serious ill health like that.
Bravery is about being fearless in the face of danger.
But courage is learning to live with adversity every day.
Is Salamander, like ADM, a better person because of it?
🙂
_|m/ ADM
Wow! God must have something big for you to do. That’s an emazing story of triumph!
*cringe*
OUUCHY!!!! I have no tolerance for pain!!! Especially for the pain of others!!! 🙁
Ooohh – nasty!
I am wincing just reading about it!
_|m/ ADM
Ok, that totally makes sense with the circulation being cut off. Amazing.
We do muscles, bones and the NS next term.
I really appreciate sharing all this. It paints such a clear picture after everything I have learned (four terms and heading into the fifth). I feel like I can imagine the whole thing in my mind. Makes me respect body trauma even more.
Thanks so much going in depth.
Sue
wow…
Im really glad you made this entry. It really tells a lot about you. Thank God you are alive and okay. Bless you……
I just finished reading this entry for the first time as I was not online much last week.
I hope your 5th Birthday was a happy and special one.
Thank you for sharing the details of your tramatic experience. It is unbelieveable what one can endure and live to tell about it. I am glad you were able to leave the hospital so early.
Though life is very fragile, it is amazing the strength one has during sickness.
froggy
Hey, I realize I’m late, as usual. But I wanted to thank you for the story of what you experienced and say…
HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY!!!
🙂