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Eight Hour Coding Session Causes DVT
NickFitz writes "The BBC reports that a UK programmer collapsed with Deep Vein Thrombosis after an eight hour programming session. The potentially life-threatening condition is more commonly seen in air passengers on long haul flights, but this should serve as a warning to many Slashdot readers (including me) that screen breaks aren't just for resting the eyes."
I'm waiting for the study of what happens if you check email for 2 hours, code for 30 minutes, surf the web for another hour or so, code for another hour, check email again, then sneak out early.
-Space for rent
You know, I've found there are ways to get your blood flowing to that "deep vein" without even getting up from your chair. Thank you, T1 and 21 inch monitor!
"I had absolutely no warning symptoms and I had no idea there was anything wrong at all," he said.
"I was sat at my desk and suddenly I was hit with the most excruciating pain in my lower back, I collapsed at the desk with my head on the keyboard, the pain was just so severe."
Collapsed with his head on the keyboard? No wonder he won the Obfuscated C Contest.
{for(x=A[1],i=calloc(strlen(x)+2,163840);
C-1;C3?Q=_= 0,(z[1]=*x++)?((*x++==104?z[1]^=32:--x)
Sitting for eight hours without moving causes DVT. I sleep for eight hours without moving much and haven't yet woken up in the ICU. It's the compression of the vein caused by having your legs hanging off the edge of a chair that does it. The reason that we see it so much in air travel is that the seats are designed to sort of fit everyone, and thus fit almost no one perfectly. With good ergonomic chair design, the leg veins won't be compressed and you could code for days without DVT.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
What American Way of Life would you expect a programmer in the UK to have, exactly?
It's a strange world -- let's keep it that way
The 3 major risk factors for a DVT are:
1) Venous Stasis. (Usually caused by not moving your legs/walking for hours at a time, such as in a long car/plane ride, or I guess 8hr. coding sessions)
2) Hypercoaguable state (Usually a predisposition to increased likelihood of clood clotting, such as being pregnant, having cancer, being on estrogen, smoking, certain genetic defects, etc.)
3) Injury to the leg.
So #1 was in play, but if he had risk factors such as #2 or #3, that would have makedly increased his risk for a DVT.
Ironically, he could have prevented venous stasis by a simple method such as this every 1-2 hours...
http://www.ntk.net/media/developers.mpg
There's a related story about an otherwise healthy teenager developing DVT after only 10 hours playing on a game console.
No word on any lawsuit, but the doctor is quoted as saying "However, it doesn't mean that the government should be putting health warnings on Playstations."
Yes, breaks are important.
Of course. Otherwise all your code ends up on one line, and it gets really hard to read.
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/01/29/043425 4
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These were my comments:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=52201&cid=518
That said, I still suffer from blood clots and have been taking warfarin for over 3 years now. I can say with some certainty that if he got a clot after sitting for eight hours, it actually only revealed itself then. He's been clotting for a while.
I'm more active now, cycling minimum 100km a week and lots of walking at work and at home... but I still sit for many hours.
I recommend to anyone who works as I do, even with breaks and regualr exercise, watch yourself. Not to be an alarmist but be wary of any pain or inflammation in your calves and thighs. The alternative just ain't worth not taking precautions.
Thank god the airlines are thinking of doing something about that.
This guy's the limit!
Not funny, but not a great hassle either. I have to get my blood tested every three or four weeks, and get my warfarin dose adjusted. It's a nuisance when I fall off my bike, because I tend to bleed a lot.
I'm supposed to get up and move about fairly regularly during the day, and mostly I remember to do that. And I do need to take regular exercise (which is why I cycle a lot). But it's something you can live with. I don't like having to take warfarin, but it isn't the end of the world.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Long story short, I used to spend long hours in a NOC (like half the people reading this). After one particularly long day of work with little stretch-time, I was walking home and boom, felt like I had a crack in my pelvis. A hospital visit revealed DVT.
A week of self-administered heparin (sp?) injections, three months of warfarin/coumadin with bi-weekly pt/inr blood tests (to adjust the coumadin dosage) and the lifelong worry that it'll act up again. I've had it reappear three times so far though I've been able to keep out of the hospital.
And it can definitely kill you. If a clot travels to the lungs or your heart you're in for a rough time. David Bloom, a reporter in Iraq, (somewhat) recently died from DVT due to sitting in a cramped M88 for days, hours at a time.
I guess what I'm saying is trust me, get up and walk around every hour or so. DVT blows.
My
Limekiller
Drink. More. Water.
After a few months, you won't need drugs and you won't have to worry about DVT. And you'll end up really good at it, :-). Anyway, I have a similar job and that was the most economical solution that I found.
Speaking out of experience...Long haul driver...Undiagnosed DVT that moved to my lung...Called a Pulmonary Embolism (PE).
5 days in hospital on Heparin with little or no movement allowed, because the clot could move to your heart (heart attack) or brain (stroke/aneurysm); one year on Coumadin (warfarin, btw is also a rat poison) with twice-weekly to monthly prothrombin checks to guarantee no wild swings (too much clotting vs hemophiliac-like bleeding); and, up until recently, aspirin regimen to decrease normal clotting once I was taken off the Coumadin.
I say up until recently because now, after being off Coumadin for 2-1/2 years I now have venous stasis in my other leg - I knew the symptoms of pre-DVT. Now currently taking Plavix and am getting compression stockings. I seem to be too good at sitting at my job!
Important to know: Once you get it once you are at a very high risk for getting it again!
I can be moderated as Inciteful...