6 ms·

The link between microclots and long COVID is new to me and fascinating. Anecdotally, this gels with some of the symptoms I've seen in friends/family. My father

by cdrini 5y ago

The link between microclots and long COVID is new to me and fascinating. Anecdotally, this gels with some of the symptoms I've seen in friends/family. My father had reduced motility in his arm-- where he'd broken it many years before--for many months after recovering from COVID. Then one random day, after he'd strained himself a bit, he noticed the pain/restriction completely gone, and the skin had turned slightly black in the region where it used to hurt. Not a doctor, but feels like something related to a microclot? He described the pain as almost like a twisted nerve or vein. This HN post talks more about the link: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29808020 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29808020

SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
One of my more bizarre long COVID symptoms was blood vessel leakage on my feet. One day a month or so after getting over COVID my feet started noticeably swelling. I was worried I had a clot in my leg so I went to the ER but sonogram came out fine. Turns out I had worn too-tight shoes the day before and the vessels in my feet had swelled/leaked. This was my same pair of shoes I had always worn at same tightness (they were running shoes that I had always slipped on and off, never tied or untied) so I knew that it had to be COVID related.
- nradov 5y ago
  Why do you know it had to be COVID related? Many conditions can cause swollen feet.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
    Because I had been wearing those same shoes for years with the exact same level of tightness and never in my life had swollen feet problem before. The bruising was also following the lines of the shoes which is how it was discovered it was related to the shoe tightness
    - nradov 5y ago
      None of that implies that COVID was the cause. It could just be a coincidence.
      - lmkg 5y ago
        > Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'. Randall Munroe, https://xkcd.com/552/ https://xkcd.com/552/ (mouseover text)
        delecti 5y ago
        I feel like the two different definitions of "imply" (formal vs colloquial) make "correlation doesn't imply causation" simultaneously true and false. On one hand, correlation doesn't necessarily demonstrate causation, but on the other hand (like the comment says) it does suggest fertile ground for research.
        bcrosby95 5y ago
        We also don't make all our decisions in life based upon research. If I eat something and it upsets my stomach, I'm not going to commission a study on it. I'm just gonna avoid eating it.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        hackerfromthefu 5y ago
        Imply != Prove
      - ad404b8a372f2b9 5y ago
        Everything can be a coincidence, it's not an helpful line of inquiry when discussing personal experience. If the man experiences a once in a lifetime health issue after having caught a virus with symptoms that bear similarities to that issue and with all other factors remaining constant, that's as much validation as you're going to get from someone's personal experience.
  - mlyle 5y ago
    It's reasonable to wonder if the illness you just recovered from is causing some ongoing symptoms, especially when many other people are experiencing ongoing morbidity from that illness. In the end, when it comes to individual cases of anything (even conditions we have a very strong understanding of), all we can rely upon is guesswork. (e.g. even if we know A causes significantly increased rates of B in study populations based on RCT evidence, it still doesn't tell us for any given person with A & B that their A caused B).
- cdrini 5y ago
  Someone else in my family had a similar symptom after the vaccine ; legs were swollen, and then the night after, her legs became black/bruised! But it went back to normal shortly.
treeman79 5y ago
I was diagnosed with micro clots a couple years before covid. My symptoms mirror long covid exactly. Blood thinners resolved. When I got covid all the symptoms came back. I had to double my blood thinners for six months. Actual cause is Factor 5 Leiden. But seems to cause exact same sort of issues.

by cdrini 5y ago

SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago

One of my more bizarre long COVID symptoms was blood vessel leakage on my feet. One day a month or so after getting over COVID my feet started noticeably swelling. I was worried I had a clot in my leg so I went to the ER but sonogram came out fine. Turns out I had worn too-tight shoes the day before and the vessels in my feet had swelled/leaked. This was my same pair of shoes I had always worn at same tightness (they were running shoes that I had always slipped on and off, never tied or untied) so I knew that it had to be COVID related.

nradov 5y ago
Why do you know it had to be COVID related? Many conditions can cause swollen feet.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5y ago
  Because I had been wearing those same shoes for years with the exact same level of tightness and never in my life had swollen feet problem before. The bruising was also following the lines of the shoes which is how it was discovered it was related to the shoe tightness
  - nradov 5y ago
    None of that implies that COVID was the cause. It could just be a coincidence.
    - lmkg 5y ago
      > Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'. Randall Munroe, https://xkcd.com/552/ https://xkcd.com/552/ (mouseover text)
      - delecti 5y ago
        I feel like the two different definitions of "imply" (formal vs colloquial) make "correlation doesn't imply causation" simultaneously true and false. On one hand, correlation doesn't necessarily demonstrate causation, but on the other hand (like the comment says) it does suggest fertile ground for research.
        bcrosby95 5y ago
        We also don't make all our decisions in life based upon research. If I eat something and it upsets my stomach, I'm not going to commission a study on it. I'm just gonna avoid eating it.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - hackerfromthefu 5y ago
        Imply != Prove
    - ad404b8a372f2b9 5y ago
      Everything can be a coincidence, it's not an helpful line of inquiry when discussing personal experience. If the man experiences a once in a lifetime health issue after having caught a virus with symptoms that bear similarities to that issue and with all other factors remaining constant, that's as much validation as you're going to get from someone's personal experience.
- mlyle 5y ago
  It's reasonable to wonder if the illness you just recovered from is causing some ongoing symptoms, especially when many other people are experiencing ongoing morbidity from that illness. In the end, when it comes to individual cases of anything (even conditions we have a very strong understanding of), all we can rely upon is guesswork. (e.g. even if we know A causes significantly increased rates of B in study populations based on RCT evidence, it still doesn't tell us for any given person with A & B that their A caused B).
cdrini 5y ago
Someone else in my family had a similar symptom after the vaccine ; legs were swollen, and then the night after, her legs became black/bruised! But it went back to normal shortly.

treeman79 5y ago

I was diagnosed with micro clots a couple years before covid. My symptoms mirror long covid exactly. Blood thinners resolved. When I got covid all the symptoms came back. I had to double my blood thinners for six months. Actual cause is Factor 5 Leiden. But seems to cause exact same sort of issues.