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 can alomst gaurantee this is going to be a rambling post, but I will try to stream my thoughts together. :o) Anyway, in another thread, someone mentioned that sitting on the couch on the laptop was (possibly) a direct cause of 2 clotting events. So now I am wondering! Was that what caused it for me?
I am sitting for a large part of my day, with my laptop on my lap. (was doing it pre-PE and still do). I do get up very, very frequently, even if just to go to the bathroom. I was thinking back though to shortly after I was diagnosed and still in the ICU. I remember my mother... who was/is convinced this was a factor... asking the pulmonologist if that was it. He pretty much dismissed it saying if that was the case, huge amounts of office/desk workers would be having clots. But again, I wonder! Yes, I am still on this crazy search for a cause! ;o)
I am also wondering if my nerve damage has played a role too, though that has also kind of been pushed aside. I bring that part up because that has a great deal to do with my inactivity some days. My legs (and hands) have about 50% nerve damage, some days are worse than others. On the bad days, with such a lack of feeling, it is difficult to safely be active. I stumble, I trip, not to mention the pure frustration of actually having to watch where your feet are going, being placed, as oppossed to simply walking!
Just thinking about all of this stuff and venting. :o)
I am sitting for a large part of my day, with my laptop on my lap. (was doing it pre-PE and still do). I do get up very, very frequently, even if just to go to the bathroom. I was thinking back though to shortly after I was diagnosed and still in the ICU. I remember my mother... who was/is convinced this was a factor... asking the pulmonologist if that was it. He pretty much dismissed it saying if that was the case, huge amounts of office/desk workers would be having clots. But again, I wonder! Yes, I am still on this crazy search for a cause! ;o)
I am also wondering if my nerve damage has played a role too, though that has also kind of been pushed aside. I bring that part up because that has a great deal to do with my inactivity some days. My legs (and hands) have about 50% nerve damage, some days are worse than others. On the bad days, with such a lack of feeling, it is difficult to safely be active. I stumble, I trip, not to mention the pure frustration of actually having to watch where your feet are going, being placed, as oppossed to simply walking!
Just thinking about all of this stuff and venting. :o)
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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.
Before I had my PE's, I would work from home (I still do), but I would sit on our BED and work in the bedroom. Somedays I sat there for HOURS, and sometimes I would even sit corss-legged for a long period of time. Then, after work, I'd sit on the couch with one leg tucked up under me (both legs really bent for a long period of time).
About a week before my PE, I also noted to my husband that I felt liek I'd gotten extremely "lazy." I wasn't running as much, nursing a cold, etc.
Lop top or not, we shouldn't sit so long.
AND I was wondering do some you get periodic chest pain now? I have noticed that I have been having a little more chest pain today then I have in the recent past. I had a nuclear stress test two weeks ago and that was fine so I know it is not anything heart related. Of course I automatically wonder aout the clots in my lungs are they "dissolving" now, and I do periodially worry about a repeat PE, but tell myself my warfarin is therapuetic so I need to stop that kind of thinking.
Anyhow - wondering what types of aches and pains the rest of you are having?
Thanks :)
So what I've just done: I bought a pedometer that measures how much you walk--- and the one I bought has glowing reports (from users, not manufacturers).
So---- I'll keep it on my body all day and set a goal that's attainable (for me). If I reach my goal I get a Hershey Kiss (or 3 or 4) for dessert. I'll see how this carrot and stick method works for me.
I'm not aiming for cardio workout---- my health is too awful for that----- but for a sustained amount of movement during the day. I haven't received it yet but maybe in a week or so.
Wish me luck.
Cave that is a good idea and I hope it works out for you!
I guess I need to find the balance of what is too much and over-doing it, and what is too little and possibly "dangerous". I tell ya, I am seriously kicking myself for not taking advantage of getting all of this figured out while I was still on coumadin for a year! Nope, instead I was lazy about it all and let the anxiety of everything run my life. So now, here I am off meds, so now have more anxiety, and I'm just trying to get my shit together! Not my most brilliant moment in time!
That said I am off to take an Acetaminophen as my Anxiety is acting up and making me hurt lol!!!!
i still get chest pain - i feel it mostly at my back - this week i treated myself to an electronic heatpad - bit like an electric hot water bottle and its FAB !!! the best 20 i have spent in a while and there is a queue of family members rather envious.... apparently heat is good to put on the pain area as it increases the blood flow.
Now it may be true that other people wouldn't clot, but for someone like me I would clot from something like this, I suppose because I have a clotting disorder. It's true, you see obese people and are all of them getting clots? No. I guess it's just what you have a tendency for. I know that I just cannot sit for long periods like that. It's also how you live your life besides that -- no exercise bad diet and sitting will all add up.
I've been cursed with a bad back since I contracted Lyme, many years ago. (Probably nerve damage in my CNS)
Bear with me----- I used to ride horses English style. Of course all that went bye bye with the devastation of Lyme and but I remember thinking that sitting in my English saddle would lessen the pain in my back. Even had my husband bring it into the house and set it up some way so I could try it. (lol) And it did seem to help but we couldn't figure out a way to house-break the horses.
Tying this in with PEs etc---- there ARE saddle seat office chairs that position ones back just the way a person would sit ' deep in the saddle', the proper way to sit the seat. Different adjustments are available and some will allow your legs to position downwards, almost as if in stirrups---- but with placement for your feet .
I'm sorely tempted to ask the birthday fairy for one (they ain't cheap).
I'd like the one with the back, please BF.
So---- it might be a twofer----- sitting in a better position for the back at the computer and not having the back of thighs constricted as in a normal office chair. If someone wants to view them there's a YouTube vid at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNT0AMhTs4k
I believe they're based in either AU or the UK but are sold in the US.
Not affiliated, or I wouldn't have to beg the BF for one. (grin)
I have a previous medical condition that causes chronic pain, so
being inactive is pretty much the "norm" for me in recent years. However, I was inactive in a different, more intense way with my ipad. I used it ALL the time.
Having said that, I should also say that my ipad may have saved my life because I used it to look up "pain in lower leg with no known cause" and read that I could possibly have a clot and went to the ER and was then diagnosed with a clot in my leg and a PE.