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.
The potted history, I had cancer in my appendix discovered by accident and removed in Jan 07, followed by 6 months of chemo. CT scan after chemo (Aug 07) showed multiple PE in both lungs, even though I was completely asymptomatic. Subsequent testing found that I have protein S deficiency so I am on life long warfarin.
By my own admission I was not the fittest person before any of this and I was and still slightly overweight (5'11" around 195lbs) I have been doing more exercise and right now I am on an 11 week ski instructor training course. On average I am skiing 4.5 hours monday to friday which I can normally handle except when we ski really hard or in heavy conditions.
What I have found is that although at the end of a hard run I am slightly out of breath, if I have to walk up slopes or fight my way out of some deep snow at higher elevations ( around 7200ft) then I really struggle to "catch my breath" and my breathing is quite hard and fast.
What I am wondering is this still because of recovering from the PE's, or because I am just not fit? or a combination of both.
thanks
Mark
By my own admission I was not the fittest person before any of this and I was and still slightly overweight (5'11" around 195lbs) I have been doing more exercise and right now I am on an 11 week ski instructor training course. On average I am skiing 4.5 hours monday to friday which I can normally handle except when we ski really hard or in heavy conditions.
What I have found is that although at the end of a hard run I am slightly out of breath, if I have to walk up slopes or fight my way out of some deep snow at higher elevations ( around 7200ft) then I really struggle to "catch my breath" and my breathing is quite hard and fast.
What I am wondering is this still because of recovering from the PE's, or because I am just not fit? or a combination of both.
thanks
Mark
Based on what my doctor told me - and the posts on this support site (and thank goodness for this support site!) - it seems like recovery from PEs varies from person to person. In my case, while I returned to work two weeks after my DVT with bi-lateral PE, I still don't feel 100%, and I get winded very easily - especially if it is cold outside (I don't really know why).
A friend of mine who had the same thing happen to her didn't return to work for six weeks, and she said she didn't feel like her lungs returned to normal function until six months after everything happened.
I think it's great you are exercising! Keep up the great work.