“In September 2014 I moved to London, I had good memories from my short stay in summer 2005”. That’s how Alfonso Rodríguez, cook, pastry chef, and author of the blog ‘Gastronomía & fitness’ begins his story with thrombosis.
In just three months in London, Alfonso’s leg started to swell and hurt. Double shifts, long hours on his feet… More than four weeks of discomfort until, at the beginning of January when I was spending some days off in Spain, I went to see my doctor.
“I had an appointment with my doctor, since I have always had varicose veins, like my mother”, says Alfonso. “I was referred to hospital so I could have a doppler echocardiography”. After the test, I was referred to another center, “where they made me a blood test and they confirmed my thrombosis”.
“I had to go back to London and tell the news at my job, finish the three weeks that I still had in my contract and come back, since my health was the most important thing. Without it we don’t have anything”. “During that time, sometimes I worked from 8 in the morning until midnight, with just one hour break, so injections had to be every twelve hours. That is, as soon as I woke up (6:30 h) and in the afternoon (18:30 h)”, he remembers. “In the evening I had to ask for permission for the injections. I had a very hard time”.
36 years old and my London project unfinished. “Due to my disease I had to go back to Spain for having a closer follow-up”. 2015, a year full of tests, of getting used to new customs. Of living with thrombosis and medication that, so far, “will be my companions for my entire life”.
Due to my disease I had to go back to Spain for having a closer follow-up
Low molecular weight heparin injections at the beginning, and then Sintrom, with the required controls in order to adjust the dose “the first year I had to visit the doctor every two weeks. Now it’s only once a month”.
As many other people, Alfonso did not know venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) before suffering from it. However, he showed his best face to current circumstances “since I could not stand up for a long time, I could not work anymore as a cook-pastry chef. So I have had to reinvent myself and I am currently beginning my new adventure as an entrepreneur”, he wrote in January this year in his LinkedIn account.
“I am currently in day 89 of my first change of 100 days”, he states. As well as adapting to the disease, Alfonso has also modified his lifestyle: “I eat healthy and I do physical activity”, hence his interest on launching his website ‘Gastronomía & fitness’.
“With this first change and thanks to my website I will help many other people to treat their health as a priority, through a good healthy diet and physical activity”, he states.
“I would like to thank the whole TROMBO.info team for giving me the opportunity to share my story. Hopefully it helps all those people who are going through this moment or it helps to avoid potential thrombi”.
Do you want to share your story?
If you have had a venous thrombosis or a pulmonary embolism and you want to share your case to help us to spread the venous thromboembolic disease, write us and we will publish your case