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.
I finally read the article in last week's People magazine where Serena Williams talks about her DVT and PE scare. Parts of her story sounded pretty familiar to me.
She had messed up an ankle and was in a soft cast. While in New York, she realized that the *other* ankle and leg were bothering her too, but brushed it off. Got on a long flight back to LA and slept through the whole thing. Got off the plane and her leg below the knee was swollen as large as her thigh. Going through the airport she felt really SOB and tired. Didn't occur to her that it could be a clot ... she throught she really should get back to the gym!
Got home and called sister Venus who happened to be working with their personal trainer at the time. Serena described her symptoms and they immediately told her to go to the hospital since she had a blood clot! She didn't believe them, decided to stick her leg in ice water instead, and was still at home several hours later when the personal trainer came to get her and MAKE HER GO to the ER, where she was eventually diagnosed.
It was particularly interesting to me that the article briefly mentioned a previous DVT. Few details were given and apparantly this clot felt nothing like that previous clot. Still, I wonder if it is realistic that she'll be coming off thinners again. I guess she probably will, since she can't play top-of-the-line tennis while on them, but I wonder if it is a good idea. Dunno...
The attitude of denial reminded me of me when I was diagnosed with my PEs. Despite two previous DVTs, it just didn't seem plausible that I had clots in my lungs ... I just didn't buy it until I was there in the ER. Guess Serena and I have that in common.
Anyone else read the story? Thoughts?
She had messed up an ankle and was in a soft cast. While in New York, she realized that the *other* ankle and leg were bothering her too, but brushed it off. Got on a long flight back to LA and slept through the whole thing. Got off the plane and her leg below the knee was swollen as large as her thigh. Going through the airport she felt really SOB and tired. Didn't occur to her that it could be a clot ... she throught she really should get back to the gym!
Got home and called sister Venus who happened to be working with their personal trainer at the time. Serena described her symptoms and they immediately told her to go to the hospital since she had a blood clot! She didn't believe them, decided to stick her leg in ice water instead, and was still at home several hours later when the personal trainer came to get her and MAKE HER GO to the ER, where she was eventually diagnosed.
It was particularly interesting to me that the article briefly mentioned a previous DVT. Few details were given and apparantly this clot felt nothing like that previous clot. Still, I wonder if it is realistic that she'll be coming off thinners again. I guess she probably will, since she can't play top-of-the-line tennis while on them, but I wonder if it is a good idea. Dunno...
The attitude of denial reminded me of me when I was diagnosed with my PEs. Despite two previous DVTs, it just didn't seem plausible that I had clots in my lungs ... I just didn't buy it until I was there in the ER. Guess Serena and I have that in common.
Anyone else read the story? Thoughts?
I don't see why she can't continue to play tennis on blood thinners. If there is any sport where you could, tennis would be one of them.
I am no Serena, but I did play competitive tennis in college. I decided to get back into it again several months ago (on thinners of course) and I am playing just about as good as I was in my heyday. Of course I am an old-timer now (relatively speaking), and things naturally break down much easier, but that has nothing to do with the PEs or blood thinners.
Life goes on after PEs..Live it!
Robert
I agree that tennis would be pretty do-able on thinners, but it doesn't sound like her doc wants her to do that.
Robert