Contributing factors...
- Tracey was on birth control for the past 2.5 years
- Tracey has a long family history of blood clots (both grandparents on mom's side, her mother, and her older sister and then a few others as well)
- Tracey was at one time on various inhalers that caused her to bruise very easily. She changed doctors and inhalers a few years ago. She still bruises easily, but less so than before. I blame this on a side effect or her asthma drugs. But maybe she was thining her blood before, her body got used to it, and then she stopped??
- Tracey has 18 years of second hand cigarette smoke exposure which ended 7 years prior to this when she left home for college.
- She has exercise induced asthma (probably irrelivant, save for the drugs she was on)
- She has alergies (probably irrelivant, save for the drugs she was on)

But what was THE triggering factor...
- Tracey had banged her arm pretty bad a few days before causing a bruise
- Tracey had a bad case of chest congestion 5-6 days prior which involved heavy, painful coughing
- Tracey did 5 nebulizer treatments during those two days using Xopenex, and she hasn't used her nebulizer in over a year
- Tracey was switched to different medications by her doctor 4 days prior due to the chest congestion
- Select and highlight the following text for content of an adult married couple nature (not for youth group kids) (We had made love 6 to 9 days prior to her leg swelling which would have put direct pressure on the affected area of her leg.)

Here's the list of drugs Tracey was on at the time of her clot.
- Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo
- Fexofenadine 180mg (aka Allegra)(alergies)
- Nasonex 50 mg (alergies)
- Spiriva (asthma - no she doesn't have COPD)
- advair 250/50 (asthma)
- Xopenex (nebulizer treatment - as needed)
- One-a-day women's vitamin
- Fish Oil pills, twice a day (asthma)

Four Days Prior, the following drugs were added.
- 5 nebulizer treatments using Xopenex
- Stopped taking Advair and was put on Methylpredinsolone 4mg (Asthma Steroid) to rapid fix the chest congestion. 6 pills one day, 5 the next, then 4, then 3, then 2, then 1 on the last day. We didn't get past day 3.
- She started taking Augmentin 875mg (like amoxicillian)
- We also added an OTC expectorant and cough suppressant (400 mg guaifenesin / 20 mg dextromethorphan HBR) similar to Mucinex but with the added cough supressant

While in the Hospital.
- She was on a Heparin drip at 500 in Jennersville and also at 250 at Christiana (i think the 500/250 a concentration indicator)
- She is on warfarin / coumadin
- They had her take 400 mg guaifenesin / Mucinex
- They put her on Zantac while she was there and we're not really sure why.
- She got 'optiray' through an IV prior to her cat scan on friday to make things show up with better contrast.
- And the hospital pharmacy abitrarily switched her alergy meds without talking to her doctor. They had her on Claritin instead of her Allegra, and Flonase instead of Nasonex. And experience has showed her & her alergist that these subsitutes do not work for her.

So if you had a blood clot, and you were on a similar cocktail of various drugs, or experienced similar triggering factors please contact us so that we can start to put a REASON to this and answer the WHY question, in the hopes of preventing you, us, and others from getting blood clots for the same reasons. THANKS!!!

-- Drew & Tracey --