Yes Recovery

I get a lot of questions about recovery after my Pulmonary Embolism so here is some information on my personal experience with recovery.  When my blood clots first initially happened I could find little to no information on recovery.  This was frustrating.  I wanted to know when the pain would stop and when I could work out again.  After fully researching what had happened to me I came to grips with the fact that it could be a while.  The thing about recovery is that it really is so specific to each individual.  So this is the story of my recovery...

I am now five months out.  My blood clots happened on May 3rd.  Today I truly can say that I feel great but the first few months I did not feel so great.  I was in really good shape when it happened to me and I do believe that my good health had a lot to do with a fairly quick recovery.  The first three weeks I was in an abundance of pain but I had some great pain medicine to help me out.  The other hard part was that I began taking coumaden in the hospital and it took several months for my body to get used to this.  Now I can hardly tell that I am taking it.  In the beginning coumaden made me very tired, dizzy and it seemed hard to carry on an intelligent conversation but over time these side effects have gone away.  I slept a lot in the beginning and at first this was really hard for me to do.  It took three weeks before I could lay flat again due to the pain.  I sleep on my back so when I could lay flat I slept for days.  My best recommendation is to take all the time you need to rest and recover.  I pushed it a lot and would do to much and then it would take several days for me to recover.  I did start to workout after three weeks but nothing hard core.  I eased my way into it and worked form there.  I ran a 5k six weeks later but I am a half marathon runner so I am trained to do this.  My 5k was not the fastest race I have ever ran but its my best race because I able to do it.

I had very slight asthma prior to the blood clots but after this happened it became severe.  The shortness of breath did not go away until mid August.  I worked out a lot because this was the only time I did not have shortness of breath.  My body was actually doing what it was supposed to by helping me breath when I was working out.  This may not actually work for everybody.  I think working out distracted me from the shortness of breath and made feel strong.

I traveled by plane for the first time in July.  I went to Jamaica on a 4 hour plane ride.  I really do not recommend this as the cabin air and humidity was very irritating to my asthma but I kept my inhaler with me at all times and had a great vacation.  Today I have not used my inhaler since August 1st and I have no shortness of breath.  My energy levels are back but just in the last few weeks.  I still take some naps here and there.  Naps are a good thing.  I work out five to six days a week and I can finally say that I am back to 100%.  If you are reading this and recovering from a Pulmonary Embolism, it does get better so hang in there.

The Day It All Changed

May 3rd 2010 was the day everything changed for me.  After being in excruciating pain for most of the night I went to the doctors office where after many test and one CT Scan later it was established at the age of 34 that I had a Bilateral Pulmonary Embolism in my heart and lungs.  I missed the symptoms a few weeks prior.  I had a swollen and sore calf for five days but I was a runner so I assumed it was a injury from one of my many runs.  The pain in my leg did go away but three weeks later the blood clot had traveled to my heart and lungs.  Ironically the day before it happened I felt amazing.  After being in the hospital genetic testing showed that I tested positive for two genes called G20210A and Factor V Leiden Mutations.  This is called a genetic blood clotting disorder.  My condition was aggrevated by 20 years of taking estrogen in the form of birth control pills.  So May 3rd I was put on a blood thinner called coumaden for the rest of my life.  This blog is about my daily adventures with coumaden and all the things that come along with it.  Its also about my recovery.  The one thing that I found when I was researching my recovery is that there is not a lot of information about what you are supposed to feel like and what you can expect.  So this blog is about my recovery and my daily adventures and shenanigans.  While everybody is different this is my story and my experiences that I want to share  in hopes of helping other people to not be scared and to know that its going to be OK.