Hi well what I’d say is that it can take a couple of months to start feeling like you are making some headway, and all the while you may experience shortness of breath, intermittent discomfort, etc. I think there is a lot to be said for how quickly your body can decondition during PE recovery. I’m sure also recovering from hip surgery adds to that. I can tell you too that after my PE my doctor was very much about trying to be active but reinforcing it will be slow going, to start slow and just try to build up, to first regain some stamina and then get back to your old self. I would keep your doctor overseeing your care informed of your struggles just so they are aware, but really it’s not unusual for it to take some time to feel
like things aren’t such a struggle.

Hang in there!!

rmb

Thank you for your reply and you are right about taken it easy and start slow I think that's where I am going wrong so going to start my excercises again and take it slower, I suppose its because I am a keen cyclist and am use to getting on my bike and doing a 100 mile ride but now on the static trainer bike I am out of breath after 3 mins.
How far into recovery are you and did you also get a lot of down days and depression ?
Thank you.

I had a really hard time emotionally starting about a month into my recovery, once the totality of what happened sort of sunk in, how serious my situation was and yet here I was after seven days in the hospital at home just trying to figure out how I'm supposed to live my life after something like that. So I'd say those first few months were pretty up and down for me, with a lot of anxiety and worry, and then too just trying to feel like myself again.

Honestly, by month three, I felt like things were turning around. I had a DVT as well and that recovery was hard, because it was so painful. So I was being told to be active but it hurt more than I would think something like that should hurt. So then you have to find the balance between pushing but not too hard. So I literally started with making sure I was walking a little bit several times a day, first in my yard, back and forth the my garage. Because that was literally all I could do between the pain in my leg and my stamina overall. Then I could start extending it down my block, and then soon after, around the block. So it was a slow build up, but in hindsight I don't think it took as long as it felt at the time. I found riding my bike to be an exercise that I could do with little discomfort and fatigue but it was totally casual riding, not anything where I was pushing myself or going on long rides.

I actually found some help for the mental/emotional stuff. I saw a counselor briefly to help me work through the anxiety and dread I felt all the time. And I started doing more meditative exercises. I'm not usually into that but I can't deny it was very helpful those first couple of months.

My PEs were over a decade ago. I'm still on anticoagulants though because I've had more than one clotting event with the DVTs so my doc thought it was best I remain on anticoagulants for life. But I feel fine, very normal, with no lasting effects except for the leg I had the DVT is weird looking, swells and gets achy. Doesn't really affect my quality of life though so it's not a big deal for me. So for me I felt pretty fantastic around the 6 month recovery mark. I really did though try to not lay around too much. I don't think that's a good idea either, so again, I think the key is being active, but start slow. Slow and steady.

It's funny. Like I said, you feel like, how am I going to live my life and somehow, you just do, It happens. It just takes a minute.

You really have been through it and its great to hear you are feeling so much better. It does help with these support group sites because you get to speak with people like yourself who have suffered for so long who can share there feelings, although we speak of our nasty clots and recovery times I think we some times forget about the mental and the anxiety it puts on us.
Thank you for your reply and keep posting as it helps so many.

Yeah, well we've all been through it to some degree, right? I mean, breaking your hip sounds awful, and then dealing with the PE curve ball... it's a lot. And I really do imagine that recovering from a hip surgery is no picnic let alone the PE aspect. But you know, people are a lot more resilient than they think they are. That old cliche... this too shall pass.

For me the unexpected emotional side of things is what was the hardest to deal with, because I thought, well shoot, I'm supposed to be bursting with life, feeling happy to be alive, and while that was true in theory, I felt so confused and just way too within myself I guess. But I think half the battle sometimes is just knowing that it's normal. For me, once I realized other people had similar experiences, it was a big relief. Not that I wanted anyone to be emotionally suffering but that I felt like it was going to be alright.

You're gonna be great. You really will.

Hi sorry you are dealing with this double whammy. I will second everything rmb said. I also found it helps to keep track of what I am able to do. The progress was so gradual I felt like I wasn't getting better at all until a friend I hadn't seen for a few weeks mentioned how much better I was since the last time I saw them. Keep at it it will improve.

Thank you for your replys , can I ask you all a question regarding follow up appointments. I got discharged from hospital mid November and was informed I would be getting a letter to go back to the hospital to see how I was getting on etc. Well off I went with my blood thinners and not to much info on recovery and waited and waited... then get a letter with an appt on 14th Feb which I thought a long time, today I get another letter saying appt has been canelled and a new appt given for 27th March. It just seems to me that that is far to long but is it ?.
When speaking to the doctors secretary I was informed at this stage I was not even going to have another ct scan to see how things are. Is this the same where you are all from , I live in a suburb just outside London, I know that our NHS is in a bad way at the moment but I find this so fruistrating .

Yeah there is very little follow-up. For a first pe the standard seems to be 3-6 months of blood thinners and then let the body heal itself.