GWS ColinJ.. DVT/Pulmonary Embolism

[phil_hg_uk]

That is a shame! Being single, it is the kind of thing that I worry about.

When I was lying on my bathroom floor, I had a real sense of being seriously ill. I've felt ropey at times in the past, but never had that feeling before and I definitely didn't like it! I hadn't even got dressed that morning and I had visions of my worried family getting the police to break down my door, and them finding my fat, naked corpse on the floor - not good. I remember thinking that if I got through this, it was time to take better care of myself. (And to start wearing PJs again! )

I was quite touched when the market veg sellers told me that they had been around some of the other stalls asking if anybody had seen 'the big cyclist' recently!

I have thought about the whole been found dead thing and I guess living by myself it is inevitable, they will have a job getting in here though as all my doors and windows have quite high security locks on them.

The previous owner of this house died in the back bedroom and they had to take out one of the rear windows to get her out. Lucky for them the windows were falling apart then.

I often dont find out about customers dying for quite a long time. One of my customers collapsed one xmas and turns out something ruptured in her brain and she died 2 weeks later, I was only round her house talking to her a few weeks prior to that. The only reason I found out at all was because her boyfriend contacted me to shut down her website as she had an online shop I had written for her.

 

[ColinJ]

I often dont find out about customers dying for quite a long time. One of my customers collapsed one xmas and turns out something ruptured in her brain and she died 2 weeks later.

Nasty!

The first time I read your post, I thought you meant that the poor woman was lying around and suffering alone for two weeks - that would have been horrific, and is the kind of thing that worries me. Last year, I sometimes went upto 7 days without speaking to anybody so I could potentially have suffered for that length of time before anybody tried to get hold of me, and they would probably have taken a few more days to get worried enough to take action. People are used to me sometimes taking a couple of days to return calls or text messages. Fortunately, when I fell ill I recovered enough to make a phone call before collapsing into bed.

 

[totallyfixed]

Regarding your post in "your/my ride today" [forget which it is] I think you are wrong and underestimate what you will be able to manage. I'm not saying this to make you feel better [I'm a northerner] but if you can walk 500 meters then you will manage 5 miles easily, plus add on the fact that you have lost weight and you will fly. Getting well again is almost always an exponential curve so the pace will pick up as the body gets stronger, I guess one of the most difficult things you face [as I thought it would be for me] is keeping the calorie intake down whilst being relatively inactive and that of course includes alcohol, but you already know that.
As it happens I actually lost weight from anxiety and sleepless nights and I wasn't exactly overweight to begin with! Stick with it Colin and when you feel able to ride again you have an invitation to came and stay with us for a weekend .

 

[ColinJ]

Regarding your post in "your/my ride today" [forget which it is] I think you are wrong and underestimate what you will be able to manage. I'm not saying this to make you feel better [I'm a northerner] but if you can walk 500 meters then you will manage 5 miles easily, plus add on the fact that you have lost weight and you will fly.

The truth is that I am not going to get back on a bike until I have already coped with a few decent hilly walks, so that will definitely be true!

I'm looking forward to riding in the hills again at a sensible weight. I'm almost down to the weight I was in 2007 when I cycled down to Coventry, and back again a week later. They were both very hilly rides of about 225 km (140 miles) and I felt fresher after them than I have been doing on my forum rides recently. I was still at least 1.5 stone overweight though, so when I get down to 12-and-a-bit stone again and get some decent rides in, I really think that I will be flying. Should be good ...

Getting well again is almost always an exponential curve so the pace will pick up as the body gets stronge

Yes, once the blockages caused by the clots have cleared away. It is hard trying to explain what this condition feels like. I imagine it is what breathing at high altitude is like - I can be breathing deeply, but only about 20% of the usual amount of oxygen is getting into my bloodstream so I get out of breath doing the simplest of tasks. I can't push myself harder to get fit because I can't risk dislodging parts of the clots, which could have absolutely catastrophic results.

I'm doing what I can for now, and once the clots have gone, I'll really get stuck in!

I guess one of the most difficult things you face [as I thought it would be for me] is keeping the calorie intake down whilst being relatively inactive and that of course includes alcohol, but you already know that.

It was easy at first because I was so ill that I barely had the strength to eat! The friend who was shopping and cooking for me knew that I must be bad because I normally eat twice what she does, but for a month ate half what she was eating.

I'm eating more now I'm feeling better, but I'm trying to remind myself how few calories I am burning while I am ill.

I won't touch alcohol again until I am fully recovered, and even then I will make sure that I don't slip back into my old pattern of several beers a night in front of the TV.

As it happens I actually lost weight from anxiety and sleepless nights and I wasn't exactly overweight to begin with!.

Blimey - there wasn't much spare fat on you, that's for sure!

Stick with it Colin and when you feel able to ride again you have an invitation to came and stay with us for a weekend .

Very nice of you, but unless my finances suddenly improve drastically, I won't be coming down to the Midlands again until Christmas and I won't be cycling on that trip.

I am hoping to make a late spring/early summer visit in 2013 though and I should be cycling then. I'll do what I did this year and time my visit to fit in with one of your Rutland forum rides, and I may plan one of my own down there for the weekend before or after. Possibly, I'd pinch the route of the Cotswold Challenge century from Meriden - that was a nice ride.

 

[Hip Priest]

Only just seen this thread and read the last few pages. It sounds like you've been through the mill a bit Colin, but I'm glad you're on the mend. My in-laws live in Trawden and now I always think of the Trauma of Trawden when we visit!

 

[ColinJ]

Only just seen this thread and read the last few pages. It sounds like you've been through the mill a bit Colin, but I'm glad you're on the mend. My in-laws live in Trawden and now I always think of the Trauma of Trawden when we visit!

Thanks.

I hope you take your bike and go for a ride while you are there! Why not tackle the middle bit of the ToT route and ride out to Widdop reservoir, and call in at the Coldwell Activity Centre cafe on the way back?

 

[Scoosh]

Baby steps, but I'm getting there ...

Great news, Colin and I'm really pleased for you. Keep at it ! (gently )

 

[potsy]

Blimey - there wasn't much spare fat on you, that's for sure!
.

Compared to dr_pink though

Great to hear you're both recovering well, look forward to riding with you all next year

 

[ColinJ]

Great to hear you're both recovering well, look forward to riding with you all next year

Thanks. (We'll wait for you at the top of the hill! )

If you carry on the way you are going, you'll have to set a target of 7,300 miles next year! (20 miles a day.)

 

[potsy]

Thanks. (We'll wait for you at the top of the hill! )

Fighting talk.

 

[Poacher]

Strewth, Colin, I'd read that you were ill, but didn't know how ill. Abject apologies for taking so long to wish you a GWS - I very rarely venture into CC Cafe, because I might never escape. Keep taking it steady - as you've said, little and often beats massive and infrequent when it comes to exercise, and probably lots of other things besides. Thanks for posting details of your experience here; it's certainly given me a lot to think about, rapidly approaching 60, at least 4 stone overweight and with an unhealthy intake of alcohol.
I hope you'll be well enough to make it to one of TF's Rutland rides next year, if he's mad enthusiastic enough to organise some - it'll do you a world of good to leave at least one other rider in your wake as you power uphill.

 

[ColinJ]

Strewth, Colin, I'd read that you were ill, but didn't know how ill. Abject apologies for taking so long to wish you a GWS - I very rarely venture into CC Cafe, because I might never escape. Keep taking it steady - as you've said, little and often beats massive and infrequent when it comes to exercise, and probably lots of other things besides. Thanks for posting details of your experience here; it's certainly given me a lot to think about, rapidly approaching 60, at least 4 stone overweight and with an unhealthy intake of alcohol.
I hope you'll be well enough to make it to one of TF's Rutland rides next year, if he's mad enthusiastic enough to organise some - it'll do you a world of good to leave at least one other rider in your wake as you power uphill.

Thanks Poacher.

The reason that I am going into so much detail about my condition is because there seems to be a lack of awareness of how easy it can be to get a DVT and for that to move to the lungs and form a pulmonary embolism. The paramedics who took me to hospital said that had lots of cases to deal with every year, and many people did not realise what was wrong with them until the last minute.

My lungs had nearly stopped working but I was still convinced that I was just suffering from a nasty chest infection. It was only my left leg suddenly looking and feeling like it was going to fall off that convinced me otherwise.

I found discussions about DVT over on BikeRadar and one person posted that his wife had died from her pulmonary embolism - it is a very serious condition.

Before my treatment started, it was fairly obvious that I was ill. Hardly any oxygen was getting into my blood so I was deathly pale as well as horribly breathless. My sisters were startled when they saw me because they thought the same as me - that I looked just like our dad did before he died, aged 84 - I am only 56!

Now, you probably wouldn't notice anything was wrong until I started to move around. I can talk without getting out of breath and I have some colour in my cheeks again but I still haven't managed to shop for myself in 2 months, despite living only about 350 metres from the shops.

I am actually more scared now than I was to start with. Then, I felt so ill that I was just relieved to be getting treatment but I have had months thinking about what is going on inside my chest and it worries me. I get sensations that are not pleasant and which I never got before I became ill. Every one of them is a reminder that a good outcome to this is not guaranteed, though I have been reassured that I 'should' be okay!

Anyway ... I can't do much other than take my two little pills every night, do what I can for myself and rely on family and friends to help me out. It is the thought of getting back on my bike next year and actually enjoying the hills again that sustains me! I was reading some old diary entries to remind me what it felt like being properly fit, sub-13 stone and it felt gooooooood!

Right - time to get myself some lunch and settle down to watch the end of today's Paris-Tours race on Eurosport.

Thanks all, for allowing me to unload my worries on this thead, otherwise I would be spending hours more on the phone to my worried sisters!

 

[Scoosh]

To (mis)quote Frasier :

"Hello, ColinJ. We're listening"

You've posted a very interesting and informative lot of posts here and one of them might save a fellow cyclist's life. We can none of us be complacent about our health.

Keep getting better, keep posting and keep picturing yourself flying up those hills !

 

[mark st1]

Sorry i should of written it on here instead of someone elses thread. That has opened my eyes to how alot of people me included tend to ignore our bodys and dont get checked out as much as we probably should !

Hope you get well soon Colin

 

[Auntie Helen]

Colin, I hope your physical improvement continues. I know how frustrating it is when you're not yourself health-wise, plus how scary every new ache/pain can be.

I had bone cancer at 22 and acute kidney failure at 29. The kidney failure took over a year to recover fully from and I spent much of that time trying to work out if I felt better than yesterday or worse (i.e. was I relapsing, which I did once). Unfortunately these things are rarely linear - we all have good days and bad days - but your general trend seems clearly towards you getting better, as your BiL noted over five days.

At the mo I am waiting for the results of an MRI scan to check for a brain tumour (as I've lost some hearing in one ear). It doesn't help that I've been laid up for two weeks with a lurgi. The things aren't related but in one's illness and fear it's easy to invent more problems. My firm advice is to avoid internet searches of your condition (if the Internet were around when I had my bone tumour I would have discovered the 5 year survival rate was 14% and yet here I am, 19 years later, and the survival rate is now 75% anyway) and that would probably have made everything worse. Sometimes not knowing is heaps better!

Anyway, keep taking care of yourself and looking forward to the cycling in 2013 - looks like you're well over the worst now and it should all improve from here.