Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
A little while ago I was given the opportunity to travel with my 5 children and my father overseas. I was incredibly nervous as I am on life time warfarin and was looking at traveling to a completely different part of the world. In the end I decided it was too good an opportunity to pass up. My children were so excited to go on their first international flight.
I returned from my trip on the weekend and it was on of the best things I have done.
We went to Bali, stayed at a lovely resort on the beach. Explored the area, watched the sunset with the kids playing on the beach..met some lovely people. I went on an elephant ride with my children!!! ( a surprise gift from my dad who is very much a live life type of person)
I achieved another item on my live life list.....my list keeps growing as i discover new things I would like to do.
It was scary to take that leap of faith and trust that everything would work out...I ran through all sorts of scenarios in my mind. In the end we had a fantastic trip. I did end up in hospital but the doctors were great and I was able to continue my adventure. My biggest fear became a reality but I got through it.
I am so incredibly happy...my experiences with clots and other serious medical conditions have enabled my to really focus on what I want to do and see in life.
After multiple clotting episodes I had thought that there would be so many things I could not do..now I am thinking of all thing things I can do.
I returned from my trip on the weekend and it was on of the best things I have done.
We went to Bali, stayed at a lovely resort on the beach. Explored the area, watched the sunset with the kids playing on the beach..met some lovely people. I went on an elephant ride with my children!!! ( a surprise gift from my dad who is very much a live life type of person)
I achieved another item on my live life list.....my list keeps growing as i discover new things I would like to do.
It was scary to take that leap of faith and trust that everything would work out...I ran through all sorts of scenarios in my mind. In the end we had a fantastic trip. I did end up in hospital but the doctors were great and I was able to continue my adventure. My biggest fear became a reality but I got through it.
I am so incredibly happy...my experiences with clots and other serious medical conditions have enabled my to really focus on what I want to do and see in life.
After multiple clotting episodes I had thought that there would be so many things I could not do..now I am thinking of all thing things I can do.
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
You and your kids will have this memory forever! That's one of the beautiful things about traveling. You can replay it over and over in your mind and it gets richer with each play back.
This has made my day!
I needed to hear this kind of story as I myself will be travelling from Europe to the US in a month and then will have to go through another 4 short flights withing the US and I am very scared but just as you, I cant resist the temptation. So I hope my trip will be all good like yours was :)
You are my hero :)
It sounds like the entire trip was amazing, and yes I am definitely jealous! But so really happy for you. I think it's great to have you back and share this, because it's a good example for several newly diagnosed people who have joined the group lately, and I think they can really benefit from hearing that life can and will go on, and it can still be really good if we don't allow fear to limit us.
It sounds like the trip of a lifetime and I'm so glad you went, even though you were worried about it!
I have had pericarditis a few times and consequently have some thickening of tissue in my heart. I get tachycardia quite frequently because of this. I got dehydrated and pushed myself a little too much and couldn't control the heart rate. They put me on oxygen for a few hours to give my heart and lungs some rest, gave me some beta blockers and told me to listen to my body and not overdo it.
I reached a point just prior to this trip where I decided not to think about all that could go wrong. I was so scared that I would end up in a in a foreign hospital that I had to make the decision that having a fantastic experience with my kids was my priority. Once I let it go I felt a strange sense of peace. Things can go wrong wherever you are....I just try not to take silly risks. I am not sure whether an elephant ride was a silly risk but I am insanely happy I did it. I have some wonderful memories that I share with my children.
And then my biggest fear came true and I was put in a taxi at 10 pm and driven through crazy traffic to hospital not able to stand and close to collapsing. But it turned out fine. And I feel like I have conquered the world.