Yeah pretty amazing stuff huh?! I hope that 2013 is my year to go for a walk without feeling puffed but winning Wimbledon, huh not chance in hell i'd be that energetic in 12mths time;)

Well, her bread and butter is playing tennis so that's a motivator, and she's in excellent condition which can't hurt recovery. However, I think it's so inspiring, because her road wasn't easy either. She had issues with lovenox causing hematomas for which she had to have a procedure to address.

Also, I think her ability to bounce back has a lot to do with mental toughness. I think our psyche and emotions often block the physical recovery.

I wonder just how serious Serena's PE were. We follow tennis and have attended many matches over the years and I was very surprised when she was back on the court so quickly. Of course every case is different and hers appear to have been very mild. I have trained at the gym for over 25-years, hiked, biked etc. etc. and even though I was in very good physical condition at the time of my PEs in early 2010, I am far from a complete recovery. We should all be so fortunate to bounce back in a few months like Serena has rather than several years. She is an amazing athlete!

Well I don't know if that's necessarily the case. I was about as critical as they get with my PEs, having had massive clots in both lungs. I also had heart damage from my PE (it eventually cleared up) so I was in the ICU for 3 days and the Cardiac unit for 4 days, having had a vena cava filter inserted and a blood transfusion, and a DVT which is the most painful thing I've ever experience. And I was back to work within a couple of weeks, and back at the gym within a month of being discharged from the hospital. It was slow, and I wasn't doing anything crazy, but I was on the elliptical machine and within 6 months I could do all that I did before, with a little effort. I'm not bragging at all so please don't take it that way, nor am I a super duper athlete either. Seriously, I'm just an average middle age woman and not nearly a uber athlete. Just pointing out that people recover differently and at a different pace and I do believe personal resilience plays a role in recovery.

Yup. Multiple bilateral PEs with lung infarction July 2009 (just passed third anniversary), could barely walk a slow half mile before I was exhausted. Swam a 1 mile ocean swim race mid August 2009. Everyone is different, and has different rates of recovery. But believing you an do something goes a long way (within reason and experience).

Not sure it's fair to say she had mild PEs simply because she was active shortly thereafter

My opinion is that the faster you're diagnosed, the faster you'll recover. The clots have a lot less time to do damage and are more likely to dissolve quickly.

When I read her story in "People" magazine, she said she fell asleep on a plane and then was limping after her flight. Called her sister and trainer when she got home and they told her to go right to the ER. She opted to take a nap instead, but they came over to her house and dragged her to the ER and she got diagnosed.

If I'm remembering the story right, it is probably less than 24 hours between the clots forming and treatment beginning. In my opinion, that'll make recovery a ton faster and easier just because the clots don't have time to do the major damage they might do in someone who was walking around with them for weeks on end.

between my first SOB and my final diagnosis was over 6 weeks, hence the infarction. Second time I went right in on diagnosis, no infarction