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.
Im 49 year old man who WAS very active in weight lifting, jogging & playing basketball. But I'll that came to Halt on May 30th of this year. The day after Memorial day I started feeling sick like I had pneumonia. I figured I had pneumonia because I had it twice before. So I made an doctors appointment just to be safe. I seen the doctor that Thursday and I did some blood test & she listen to my lungs and she said it doesn't sound like you have pneumonia but still take some antibiotics & get a chest x-ray. Got the medicine but I didn't take the x-ray because I didn't have time. That Thursday night I went to the gym and I started working out and all of a sudden It was hard breathe, I couldn't finish my routine without breathing heavily. I was doing steps up on a bench holding 35lb DB's and I just did 20 reps 3 days before, but now I can only do 6 reps without being out of breathe. I brushed it off thinking I was just tired. Got on the treadmill and usually I would do a run/walk for 12minutes, after 3 minutes I was breathing so hard like I just ran 100 yard dash at full speed. Again, I just brushed it off....I got back up the next morning to workout again, I started to warm up doing a light weight of squats, no problem...275lbs I got to 8 reps and I had to lay down, I couldn't catch my breathe & I can actually see my heart beating thru my chest because it was beating so fast. So I pushed my self thru the workout, Deadlifts, shoulder press, etc. I commute to work so I catch the bus and then walk a 1/2 mile to work and then up four flights of stairs. I got to the 4th floor and I was breathing harder than I was at the gym earlier that morning. I had to sit down so I could catch my breathe. Made it through they day and I finally got home. Took a nap, woke to use the bathroom and I had to cough and when I did I spit up a 'blood clot' Im like WTF?! Im still thinking its just the pneumonia. Told my wife she said you better go to the doctor and me being stubborn said, Im cool. I coughed up another blood clot later that night and again the next day at work. So I decided to go to the Emergency room. I was there for about 3 hours taking blood test, CT scans, EKG....nurse came in and closed the curtain and said...Your not leaving here tonight. I said why and she said the doctor will be in to tell you. He came and said, sir you have a 'Pulmonary Embolism', I said a WHO? My wife looked and started crying. Im like what is that? Doctor explained that if I would've waited another a day or two it could've killed me. Im still in shock because I didn't know it was that serious. He ask if I have been flying across country or taking long drives, any surgeries lately? Im like no. Any swelling in my legs & arms and I said no. I told them im working out 4-6 times a week. All the dr's are puzzled on why/how this could have happened. SO I had to stay the night in the hospital and Im now on Xarelto. Im been in & out depression because of this, I cant workout, I cant play basketball, its depressing...but I am ALIVE! I just seen a Blood Specialist on Friday to give some blood for some testing. Most of them came back normal but Im still waiting for the 'Factor V Leiden' results to make sure its not genetic. Today I plan on going to the gym just to see how I feel with a light workout, nothing near what I was doing 2 1/2 weeks ago. I walked the 1/2 mile to work and finished it off with the 4 flights of stairs. A little outta breath but nothing like it was 2 wks ago. I now sit and read about 'PE' everyday so I can understand more about this. I found out it kills more people than AIDS a year! Every person that Ive told tells me, 'Man your a very Lucky to be alive'... I hope I didn't write to much...
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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.
I'm glad you found this site. The people on it have been such a help to me.
When I had my PE, I had the same reaction. What?! I'm active, healthy. How could this happen to ME?! I also had all sorts of rationals for my pain and shortness of breathe. I had had a nasty case of bronchitis, and I thought it was going into pneumonia. I did go see a doctor with the first round of pain and sob, but I didn't seem that sick, so I didn't get diagnosed at that time. A few days later the same pain started on the other side and was even worse than the first time. Still when a friend came to visit, the first thing out of his mouth was, you need to go to the ER." I don't know if it was the lack of O2 to the brain or what, but I told him I'd wait and go to the clinic the next day. Well, the dawn came and I knew I was in trouble. Woke my friend up and had him take me to the ER, where I was diagnosed.
Also, I didn't have much in the way of leg symptoms going on. I did do a very long drive a few days before the PE symptoms, and the only symptom I had was a butt cramp that just wouldn't stop. I kept stopping at every rest stop to walk it off. When I got home though it stopped bothering me.
I'm a little over year out now, and except for occasion very mild discomfort on the right side of my chest, I really feel back to normal. I feel soooooo grateful. I'm lifer on coumadin because it turns out I have two copies of Factor five Leiden. I feel pretty lucky that I didn't have my first clotting event till my 60's, and that I survived without lasting damage.
Take care
kdgsupermom
Beyond that, I have no doubt you'll recover well. But do know it takes time. I was really surprised at how long it took for my symptoms to clear. I'm 11 months out now and I feel back to normal physically but I still get occasional twinges and pains that scare me. Have they checked out your heart? It's common to have some enlarging of the heart because the heart has to pump so hard against the clots. This generally resolves itself over time but it's a big reason you need to take it easy on yourself and allow time to heal. Best of luck and keep checking back, there are a ton of great people here with excellent info.
If your doc gave you the ok to exercise, do it. I was in the hospital for 7 days, massive PEs in both lungs and some heart damage and even my doc said I could start exercising as soon as I was discharged. He did recommend starting very slowly, with walking or the stationary bike. So just start slow. I'm fully recovered and most people fully recover so the future is bright. It just can sometimes take a little time.
Also... there's a good article about athletes and blood clots here:
http://patientblog.clotconnect.org/2011/03/02/athletes-and-blood-clots/
One thing that's tripping me out is that I keep getting small cramps in my left calf, my lower side of my back still feels like something wrong and I small cramps in my left butt cheek. Its making me paranoid because I read about people having cramps but come to realize it was blood clots moving through their body.....
But really, if you're on anticoagulants that should prevent new clots from forming and any existing clots should already be starting to resolve. I'd say if you continue to have cramps or it gets worse, call your doc. It could help sort out what may be causing that and give you some peace of mind.