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.

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Warfarin, BP and exercise

cjmenjou
cjmenjou
In addition to the warfarin, looks like I may also be put on BP meds since I was borderline high and my hematologist is worried about a cerebral hemmorhage while anticoagulated. He said that even a temporary spike is dangerous. Working on that issue with my GP.

Even once that is under control, however, blood pressure does rise on exercise. I did a recent treadmill test where it went to 180/80. I know people exercise on warfarin, is it an issue? I am a little worried they'll say no exercise for 6 months (or worse, life). That doesn't make much sense to me

Anyone have experience or thoughts?
cjmenjou
cjmenjou
Answering my own question... saw the pulmonologist this a.m. He said as long as BP is normal and regulated he is not concerned with a transient rise on exercise. The benefits of exercise outweigh what seems to be a small risk
deleted_user
deleted_user
Good to know. I think these doctors don't realize they are scaring the *$%# out of us when they casually bring up things like, "cerebral hemorrhage".
More2be
More2be
I was walking the outdoor surroundings almost constantly after I got out of the hospital, and returned to old-man-slow running the second week. Though my case was (and remains) a total mess inside, I was largely asymptomatic by then. I have done two marathons since. I was more sidelined by an unrelated injury than by warfarin.

Steady heavy exercise, if feasible and medically advised, goes a long way for recovering and preserving lung capacity. Also it may provide an even metabolizing of warfarin, so there would not be so many characteristic INR ups and downs.