“Things may come to those who wait...but only the things left by those who hustle.” -Abraham Lincoln

Last week was the respiratory exam, and I studied a lot for it and thankfully, I did really well =). I had two patients in clinical this week. I did a case study on one of those patients. She was diagnosed with cancer that had metastized to multiple organs and a DVT (deep vein thrombosis) that has migrated to a PE (pulmonary embolism). For my case study, I tried to focus on the correlation between cancer and DVT/PE. I was surprised to find that cancer is a very larger contributor to DVT/PE. People with cancer often have a higher number of platelets and clotting factors in their blood. Platelets clump together to form a plug to stop bleeding and give out chemicals to help the blood clot. Cells also release substances that increase clotting when killed by chemotherapy. Surgery and chemo damage the vessel walls, also increasing risk.

Only a few weeks until graduation!
until next time =)
bre knapic