I know about the bruised hand and the obvious cankles

[vapor2]

but anyone know what is the issue with his right eye?

[moniss]

1. Some of the pictures of the hand

show some black and blue area near the area between his fingers. It struck me because that looked similar to my hand several years ago when I had an IV inserted. Sometimes if they have a problem getting a vein and try a bunch of times you can get big time bruising on the hand. I'm not saying that's what happened I'm saying it looks similar to what I had. I didn't go for all the clown makeup I just walked around with the back of my hand all black and blue.

[Walleye]

5. Me too when I had chemo same thing

[LetMyPeopleVote]

2. trump is NOT well

You may need to change hands for these blood draws. trump is not well

Link to tweet

[Mossfern]

6. I have been taking Warfarin (rat poison) for more than 30 years

I have my blood tested for INR levels monthly. They do not do a venous blood draw for the test - it's a finger prick.

[Ms. Toad]

7. It can be both.

More common now (since 2009-ish) is a finger prick. Even then I had venous blood draws. My doctor's office figured out he could charge me for a nurse's visit if he had her utter a few words. Since I was, then, being tested multiple times a week (i.e. multiple office visits) - and my insurance covered blood draws at 100%, I had to go to a lab which only used venous draws.

But venous draw are generally done in the arm, not the hand - unless the arm veins can't be used.

I was off and on warfarin and heparin from the 80s through 2010.

[Mossfern]

9. How'd you get off Warfarin?

I'll be on it for the rest of my life.
Are you on any anticoagulants at all?

I did have blood draws years ago, but they were from my arm, not my hand.
I think his bruises are probably from some sort of treatments.
He looks unwell.

[KentuckyWoman]

11. For me

Last edited Mon Aug 25, 2025, 09:03 PM - Edit history (1)

I am having good luck with Eliquis plus Plavix. Generic not brand. Yes, Eliquis just recently went generic. Still expensive.

Doc says warfarin is a better solution but I have no tolerance for that much maintenance

Forgive me. Entresto is the one that went generic. Not Eliquis, which I also take.

[Ms. Toad]

14. Yours is the normal scenario.

I had an uncommon variety of DVT - venous thoracic outlet. My clotting was structural - the vein was trapped between the to rib, the collar bone, and a muscle. On one side, they removed the top rib, so since I didn't have an underlying clotting disorder, there is no more risk of clotting on that side.

The other is more complex - it was earlier and they knew almost nothing. They had not discovered the rib removal solution yet - so it is pretty much permanently clotted off, with no risk of moving anywhere because the structure that created it also traps it there (and now it's some sort of scar tissue, rather than a clot). I was hospitalized for a full month, both trying to treat it, as well as stabilizing on heparin, then shifting to warfarin for home treatment. I lost count at 100 blood draws from my right hand during that month. It was the only site they could use, since it has to be below the heparin drip, and they couldn't use the left arm because the left arm resembled an eggplant, since it wasn't getting back to me heart at anything close to the normal rate.

I have humongous collateral veins on that side that carry the blood back to my heart - since they go around the thoracic outlet, there is no clotting risk there, either.

Nothing is ever simple with me and medicine. But I'm glad the complexity here let me get off of blood thinners/anticoagulants. I haven't been on them since the rib was removed in 2010. My numbers were never stable, even with very careful control of vitamin K intake.

[PCIntern]

15. Jesus, that's some story....

Glad you’re ok now.

[Ms. Toad]

19. And that was the short version of it.

Just two more tidbits (which help explain how many times I jump into medical discussions here, even though my educational background is in math, science, law, and now art).

Part of the reason for the month in the hospital (and the 100+ sticks) was because the doctors were being stupid.

They (residents and/or interns - I don't recall by now which) were having a tough time getting the heparin right. I was extremely hypocoagulated. They turned off the heparin, calculated the half-life of heparin in my system, then turned it back on at the time they deemed appropriate, waited an hour, and then drew another PT/INR. Same result. Wash, rinse repeat. After the second time I suggested that I was never dropping into the safe range, regardless of the theoretical half-life. They rejected it as nonsensical and hooked me back up again at the time they decided was (theoretically) appropriate. The third time they tried to hook me back up, I refused treatment until they agreed to run a PT/INR before they turned it back on. I'm sure you know what's coming . . . I had never dropped into the safe range. I don't recall how many hours later it was before it was safe to hook up the heparin again, but it was more than double the time they had been waiting. (Their excuse - they didn't want to have to poke me extra times - something they never asked me about, nor had I EVER complained about. I'm a very easy stick; I inherited my father's gigantic hand veins. Sure it was a pain, but I understood the reasoning both for the number of sticks, and where they had to draw from. Better safe and experience a bunch of ouchies than dead.)

I got yelled at by my primary care physician for being mean to the baby docs. But at least I wasn't dead from hemorrhaging.

Sometime after that incident, the actual doctors (including a specialist who was called in from a second hospital in town) arrived in my room with 6, if I recall correctly, case studies of venous thoracic outlet syndrome. (This was back in the early 80s - before upper body muscle building was a thing, accompanied by an increase in VTOS.) That was all they could find. They invited me to read them, share any ideas I had with them. They explained that although the blood would eventually create some collateral circulation in its inevitable return to my heart, it wouldn't be complete and I would almost certainly always have circulation issues in my left arm - and that it would be worse when I was exercising or pregnant. Shortly after that I proposed starting an exercise program that took advantage of the opportunity we had while my arm resembled an eggplant to push the collateral circulation to its limits. I couldn't create an instantaneous pregnancy - but I could exercise enough that I could create collateral veins large enough to handle the circulation during exercise. I got permission to trot around the floor pushing my heparin pole for the duration of my hospital stay (a half mile, twice a day - fast enough to get winded - and then started swimming a mile or two several times a week). To this day, I am one of the few people who had VTOS before the body building craze who has zero remnant circulation issues. (Now they know something - and just take the rib out - as they did with the contra side for me 20 years later.)

So all my medical certainty which doesn't really match my training started with those two doctors inviting me into their exclusive arena. (There's been lots more in our family's lives since then - but that's where it started.)

And, I guess, a third tidbit . . . don't spend a month in the hospital when you are too sick to really be hospitalized, but for the fact that they hadn't invented outpatient subq heparin yet. You see way too much about how hospitals really function.

[PCIntern]

20. Wow!

I’m very impressed that you managed to prevail, and I have my own semi horror stories concerning my health, but nothing which approaches yours. I’m really glad you’re OK.

Thanks for the narrative… It is remarkable and you should save it somewhere for future reference. It is written brilliantly.

[Mossfern]

17. What an ordeal!

I'm glad you came out of it well off!

I had a MI at 46 years old. My LAD coronary artery was blocked - ended up losing about 10-15% of my heart muscle.
The cause (they thought for almost 30 years) was a coronary artery aneurysm. Recently I had surgery for a different issue and ended up with several pulmonary embolisms in both lungs. The reason for the embolisms was that I was off my Warfarin for several days. I was admitted to the hospital and seen by a hematologist. It turns out that I have a clotting disorder that may be genetic - so it's possible that the MI was not caused by a congenital deformity, but the very sizable clot may have caused the aneurysm. No matter what, I will be on Warfarin forever.

Even though it's a bit of a pain to constantly go for testing, I prefer Warfarin as it can be reversed with vitamin K in case of emergency. There is no readily available antidote for the alternative anti- clotting agents. I told my kids to get tested for the protein deficiencies that I have.

[Blue Full Moon]

8. His other hand has bruises so they already are.

[UTUSN]

18. "serious heart condition" - Remember the stampede of concern over CHEENEE, who's still kicking but

those vampires get world class health care courtesy of everybody who doesn't.

[JI7]

3. Could these things just be things that happen as one gets older ?

I know even the things being discussed like the illnesses can be associated with getting older.

But I mean maybe it's not a specific illness but just things that can happen to older people. Similar to how teenagers can get acne ?

Although I can't see how he doesn't have certain health problems becsuse of his diet and lack of exercise.

[meadowlander]

21. Potentially.

Mitch McConnell's famous hand bruising was in 2020 and he's still kicking around 5 years later unfortunately. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/10/22/politics/mitch-mcconnell-bruised-hands

My dad lived with congestive heart failure, kidney disease, Alzheimers and diabetes for more than 5 years.

Trump is obviously sick and hiding it but it doesn't necessarily mean he is going to drop dead tomorrow either. Modern medicine can keep people going through a lot and Trump will have the best medical care available at his disposal.

Sorry to be a buzzkill but I probably wouldn't bet money on Trump dying in office.

[AltairIV]

4. Is it just me.....

,,,,,,or do his fingers appear to be swollen?

[Skittles]

10. I think so too

and I KNOW my fingers are longer than his

[William Gustafson]

13. Everyone fingers are longer than his...

and now the look like Venia sausages with nails...

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I was going to say they appear shorter

[Moosepoop]

16. What are you noticing about his eye?

I'd like to look for what you're seeing, but need a bit more info such as what the eye area is doing and which recent events with pics or video of him would show it.

Could you please expound a bit more on the topic? Thanks!