jasmine Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Hi, Most of you know that I retired from the IT professional. I did have a problem with blood circulation from both sitting and commuting to work. However, taking aspirin (just one a day) seems to help and I have not any problem with sitting in aeroplanes yet. Hubby and I do make sure that we get up every hour even just to walk back and forth though. This original post should be a reminder for everyone how fragile and precious life is, thank you. Jasmine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iuytrede Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 1. Intercontinental flights are much longer than 8-10 hours. Flight time is often more than 10 hours, add to this the time of transport to and from the airport, plus waiting times at airports, and even a flight between Europe and Bkk (11 hours in theory) adds up to 20 hours without movements, something you hardly do in everyday life. DVT cases who made it into the media often resulted from flights between Europe and Australia, that's a flight time of over 20 hours, travel time over 30 hours. 2. Air in an airliner is about as dry as in a desert, and passengers are not given any reasonable volume of liquids to drink. I suffer from chronically swollen mucous membranes in my nose, the only place where the swelling disappears is an airplane. It is the dryest place that I have ever been to (and yes, I have been to the Middle East and to the Mojave). Outside an airplane, I will automatically make up for this by drinking a lot (I just had 700 ml ice tea when I was typing this). On a plane I drink as much as I can without seeming impolite (and they give me 100 ml per serving!), but normally I will lose almost 5 kg even on a flight of 4 hours (plus plus... see above). So I always arrive in "good shape", and people tell me I lost weight since they saw me last time. But in reality I am just dehydrated. 3. Airlines encourage people not just to sit without movements, but to actually SLEEP in cramped unnatural positions. Most intercontinental flights are night flights, and even during daylight many flight attendants will shut the windows. Sleep is as motionless as you can get, and I think most people who sit in front of a computer are not sleeping there (not sure :. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Wow, finally something I have some knowledge of? Long flights!!!! Lucky for me and others in the ?aviation? career field, many of us receive ?Flight-physiological? training. DVT & even Stagnant Hypoxia to some degree come up from time-to-time as do ways to combat them. The biggest thing I do to help lessen the chance of developing either problem is pretty simple? Get up and move around. Our longest haul is somewhere around 15 hours (winter months), basically a straight shot to Thailand from Hawaii. We?ll even see 12-14 hour times when flying straight to Europe ?over the pole?. During those extended flights you?ll see any one of the crew members get outta the seat and stretch at least once an hour?if not more. Even in the confines of a small flight deck one can stretch, squat, or do simple calisthenics to help blood flow & prevent ?pooling?. When I fly commercial as ?self-loading baggage? ?to LoS for example? I rarely spend more than an hour seated. I?ll try to swing an aisle seat at the rear of the aircraft which allows me to slip away without troubling too many folks or the flight attendants. If I?m up in business, well it?s just a longer walk aft and more exercise I try to find a somewhat out of the way place, normally at the tail, & stretch for a bit. Often I?ll end up chatting with the flight attendants, something consider an added bonus As far as meds go to prevent DVT, well I can?t say for sure on that issue? We?re not allowed to self medicate, for obvious reasons. I?ve been doing the stretching thing for several years now and have been pretty fortunate in not developing DVT or other extended inactivity related ailments. I believe the simple steps mentioned above have definitely helped. Something else to do when taking extended flights? Drink loads of water!!! As mentioned before, you?re flying for 10+ hours at cabin altitudes of 6000-8000 ft, with very dry air (the ACM actually removes moisture by design)? That can take a toll on anyone. Drinking lots of water will help stave off dehydration, which will help fight fatigue and a number of other problems. Also, the more you drink (water?not alcohol ) the more you?ll be forced to un-ass your seat & move to the pisser? Helping fight off DVT as well HTH a little, Nakbin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SingaporeSteve Posted December 17, 2004 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Sukhumvit said:Scary stuff. Have they given you any follow up advice as to what you could possibly do in future to prevent a recurrence? Are you now more likely to suffer a relapse or similar type problem, given that you were previously as fit as a butcher's dog? Funny enough I spoke to the Hemotologist about this last night when I went for yet another check-up. He said my Lupus Anticoagulant test (whatever that is) had come back negative, which is what it is supposed to be. He said lets get the blood thinned first and then looked at underlying potential causes which would involve a further series of seemingly expensive tests As a general update, after two days of blood thinning medication, I have moved from 1.01 on the blood richter scale to all of 1.02. Considering they want me to get to 2.00, they have decided to up the doseage of the rat poison (warfarin) and I have to self inject :: fraxiparine through a syringe every day as well - not a nice experience having to do that yourself. Got to go back again on Wednesday for further tests and medication. So far the bill for all the medication, ultrasounds, doctors fee's etc has come to around 17,000 baht which I think is very reasonable. The fraxiparine syringe injection though is a 1000 baht a time so hopefully wont be on that little sucker for too long, purchased 9 days supply already and that accounts for 9000 baht of the bill - the rat poison is far more reasonably priced at 10 baht a tablet. Thanks for everyones concerns - most encouraging and I'll keep you posted on progress. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted December 17, 2004 Report Share Posted December 17, 2004 Something else to do when taking extended flights? Drink loads of water!!! As mentioned before, you?re flying for 10+ hours at cabin altitudes of 6000-8000 ft, with very dry air (the ACM actually removes moisture by design)? Sure about the height ??? BB not a lowflyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 18, 2004 Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 On Airlines flights, the attendants love to pass out alchol and coffee which dehydrate you more which seem to make the problem worse instead of better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shygye Posted December 18, 2004 Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 The cabin pressure is at 8000 ft when the aircraft is at 30000+ ft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 18, 2004 Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 Hiya BB, Yep, for our a/c the norm is 8000ft (max) day, 5000ft (max) night? Most of the time we set it at 5000-6000ft but that depends on what flight-level we?re operating at Commercial airliners often set their cabin alt lower ?for passenger comfort? and I?ve heard of settings as low as 500ft!!! Again this depends on what altitude they?re operating at and other variables. The biggest concern can be pressure differential as well as what the aircrafts ACM can put out or maintain at a given flight-level (we have only 1 ACM compared to, say, a 747 with 3). So it?s passenger comfort vs. wear on the aircon / pressurizations system and airframe. At any rate, the alt is normally higher than what most are accustom to and the air substantially dryer. I can remember a few years back having a plane depressurize at alt. It was quite slow and fortunately we were all able to see the signs of hypoxia early enough to take corrective action. Unfortunately we couldn?t descend to a safe altitude (at least 10k) due to terrain and spent a good 2 hours at 25k feet cabin altitude (with a helmet & O2 mask of course). Needless to say we were pretty spent by the time we got on the ground. I?m still amazed at how the B-17/24 crews of so many years ago spent 8+ hours at those altitudes un-pressurized with the added pleasure of being shot at. Mahalo!!! Nakbin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted December 18, 2004 Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 nabkin, Thanks for the education. I was not aware of the figures. BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 18, 2004 Report Share Posted December 18, 2004 And this is probably why flying 'beats the crap' out of me - I spend almost all of my time at sea level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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