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.
And I am lighter, faster and better than I have ever been
March 2010 went on coumadin for life...errr, "indefinitely"... for my second unprovoked clot.
At the time of my clot, I was active, did ran road races races, triathlons, swims, skied, scuba dived, etc. And weighed about 230-240 pounds, depending, so I wasn't particularly fast in my races. When I clotted for a second time I thought all of that part of my life was over, especially the racing. Slowly came back, raced a few races in 2011 as a comeback, but was still overweight. Decided in September 2011 at 235 pounds to finally take responsibility for my nutrition.
Last Saturday I raced the California 70.3 triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) at 205 pounds. I took 44 minutes off last year's time at the same race, and all of that gain was in the bike and run (fairly decent swimmer, time is pretty much the same at every race of this distance).
In February I set a personal best in a 10K.
Going diving in Cozumel in May, then back to Hawaii in August.
I had a dive doc's clearance for diving, and my pulmonologist knows about, although not fully approving of, my racing
Just because you get clots, or even have to be on coumadin for life, does not mean that you have to stop doing what you love. In fact, not only can you still do the things you used to, you might even do them better than you ever did before.
Hopefully some newbies or new lifers can take something from this, as I thought everything was ending when it happened to me. Turned out the good stuff was just getting started.
Chris
March 2010 went on coumadin for life...errr, "indefinitely"... for my second unprovoked clot.
At the time of my clot, I was active, did ran road races races, triathlons, swims, skied, scuba dived, etc. And weighed about 230-240 pounds, depending, so I wasn't particularly fast in my races. When I clotted for a second time I thought all of that part of my life was over, especially the racing. Slowly came back, raced a few races in 2011 as a comeback, but was still overweight. Decided in September 2011 at 235 pounds to finally take responsibility for my nutrition.
Last Saturday I raced the California 70.3 triathlon (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) at 205 pounds. I took 44 minutes off last year's time at the same race, and all of that gain was in the bike and run (fairly decent swimmer, time is pretty much the same at every race of this distance).
In February I set a personal best in a 10K.
Going diving in Cozumel in May, then back to Hawaii in August.
I had a dive doc's clearance for diving, and my pulmonologist knows about, although not fully approving of, my racing
Just because you get clots, or even have to be on coumadin for life, does not mean that you have to stop doing what you love. In fact, not only can you still do the things you used to, you might even do them better than you ever did before.
Hopefully some newbies or new lifers can take something from this, as I thought everything was ending when it happened to me. Turned out the good stuff was just getting started.
Chris
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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.
Although I will probably wait until I am off the meds to take this trip it's good to know that we all have the same thoughts and fears and life goes on. Thanks.
Has anyone else heard this from their Doctors?
Then again, after my first round, a UCLA research/teaching physician said "yeah, go ski, just don't be stupid and wear a helmet." Probably good advice on coumadin or not.
I know a few people that do all this crazy stuff that docs tell us we should not. If it's something you love to do, I see no reason why you shouldn't take the precautions you can (wear a helmet, avoid skiing the trees maybe, etc.) and live your life.
Just my ,02
Chris