GWS ColinJ.. DVT/Pulmonary Embolism

[ColinJ]

Oops, I forgot to check into my own thread! Well, strictly it is potsy's thread, but you know what I mean ...

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 !

Thanks Scoosh.

I'd been getting a bit embarrassed posting so much about myself, but there again - if I had read similar accounts written by somebody else a year ago, I wouldn't have ended up like this! Hopefully, a few people will change their lifestyles as a result of reading about my illness, or at the very least spot the signs of it earlier than I did.

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

Thanks Mark.

My mum suffered from clots so it is possible that I have inherited the tendency from her, but I suspect that it is more a lifestyle thing in my case.

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.

You've really been through the wars, Helen! I'm glad you made such a good recovery.

You are right about the ups and downs. I suddenly felt really down today, at first physically, and then emotionally because of how vulnerable that made me feel. I'm used to being a big, strong, healthy bloke but now I am weak, needy and poorly and I don't like it! Having said that, I know that I am lucky to have a condition which, though serious, has such a simple treatment. Apart from putting up with regular blood tests (another one tomorrow - ugh - I don't like needles! ), all I have to do is take a couple of Warfarin pills every evening, and wait to get better. (I hope!)

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.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that - I really hope that they don't find anything nasty - good luck!

Too late with the internet advice though - I was searching online again today. I'd been feeling that perhaps I am not going to be well enough to resume cycling early in the New Year as I planned, so I looked up the stories of a few people recovering from pulmonary embolisms to see how they were doing. Some people had suffered damage to their hearts and blood vessels, and suffered subsequent embolisms and DVTs. I'd been thinking that in 6 months time, a fit and healthy ColinJ would emerge, and it shook me to think that I might never make a full recovery, or perhaps I might have to go through all of this again.

I've got to put that out of my mind. If it turns out bad in the future, so be it, but I do not want to spend the next 6 months worrying about it in advance!

 

[ttcycle]

Step away from the internet searches Colin!

You'll just have to take it one step at a time, piling worrying information on your plate right now is not going to help you. You'll be back on the bike- you just have to let yourself get well first.

Helen I hope that scan has a all clear result.

 

[The Jogger]

Colin, I think the best thing you can do is keep it in the day, follow the advice of the experts that are dealing with you, keep positive and don't hit the search button so much, instead think positive.

I also find a bit of Buddhist meditation doesn't have help keep things in check. Not for everyone but available for everyone.

Hope all goes well for you Helen.

 

[ColinJ]

I just had my blood test and asked the nurse from the Warfarin clinic when the local NHS Trust expect to switch over to patients using self-testing machines. She laughed and said "How long is a piece of string?" With cutbacks in the budget, there was little chance of it happening any time soon.

The machines cost about £500 - £1,000 and the single-use blood sample slides cost £2 - £4, so I can see it would be expensive upfront, but the ongoing savings should be significant because it must cost a lot more than £4 for a nurse to take a sample and for that to be sent to a lab and analysed.

Self-testing could be done more frequently than tests by nurse & lab which would mean that drug dosage could be more tightly controlled. It would also be less unpleasant for needle-phobics like me!

This is just a build-up to me asking the nurse how many patients would need the self-test machines and she told me that would be 'thousands' in Kirklees and Calderdale. I asked if that was an exaggeration and she told me that literally thousands of people in this area are being treated for clotting problems at any one time - it is clearly a very big health problem. I wonder what percentage of strokes and heart attacks are due to complications from clotting?

 

[Ian H]

It makes me feel ashamed of being depressed about my very slightly dodgy knee (being sorted out efficiently by the physio).

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

GWS mate

 

[Scoosh]

Slightly OT
Wow ! AH, you have certainly earned your moniker :

Ich bin Powerfrau !

You sure are ! Serious Respect.

 

[ColinJ]

Okay, here's a much more positive update!

I was definitely feeling a bit sorry for myself yesterday, but started feeling better this morning once I'd got that pesky blood test out of the way. (I know that I'm a bit of a wimp, but I just dislike having needles stuck in my arm!)

I'd run out of Warfarin and was all set to ask my long-suffering pal to pick up my prescription for me, but decided that it was time to start walking more than I have been so I went to get it for myself, accompanied by aforementioned pal.

(Sat down on a concrete bollard for a rest, halfway to the (ill-)health centre.)

Ha - for the second time (out of two prescriptions) they had made a mistake! Last time, they issued a top-up prescription which meant that I had to pay twice. This time, I insisted that they sort it out on the spot because I needed the drugs today, and I wasn't paying for their mistake again. The receptionist got a doctor to amend the prescription for me, and made a note on my records to try and avoid this happening again. (I have at least another 4 months worth of prescriptions to come.)

I took the prescription across the road to the pharmacy.

(Sat down for a rest, waiting for prescription to be handed over.)

Walked to town square.

(Sat down for a rest!)

Got cash from bank machine, and bought 6 items from 2 shops - the first shopping that I have done for myself since the end of July!

Walked to a cafe with my pal and had the veggie breakfast option as a treat, and of course - sitting down and resting. (Last able to get there to that cafe in July.)

Headed for home. Sat down on a bench by the river to rest on the way.

A South American man living in Hebden Bridge makes stone sculptures in the local rivers. Some of them are pretty amazing. He had made some arches out of flat stones from the river. I can't see how he would be able to do that by himself unless he used something to support the stones until the key stone was inserted! He had also created columns of stones balanced one on top of the other, some of which looked so top-heavy that it was hard to believe that they had not been glued in place!

Walked the rest of the way home.

That's the most exercise that I've had since late July!

I've got my family up on Saturday, and Steve H is going to meet me for a coffee halfway round the Hebden Bridge Star audax on Sunday.

PS Slowerthanasluggishsloth - if the weather is nice in the next week or so and you are free, I'd like to take you up on your kind offer of a lift to a country cafe, and maybe a very short stroll. I'll PM you nearer the time!

 

[ColinJ]

Oops - I got my dates wrong ... I was already suffering ill health at the end of July, but didn't conk out completely until about the 2nd week in August. Still - it feels like a long time!

 

[fossyant]

Glad to hear you are progressing and being able to get out. Take it easy. Oh and don't get too worried about needles, no-body likes them !

 

[SlowerThanASluggishSloth]

PS Slowerthanasluggishsloth - if the weather is nice in the next week or so and you are free, I'd like to take you up on your kind offer of a lift to a country cafe, and maybe a very short stroll. I'll PM you nearer the time!

As I just happened to be passing I popped into the cafe and who should I meet but ColinJ!
I think I've already PMed my e-mail address, haven't I? That' probably a more reliable channel of communication.
If you carry on improving at this rate baby-steps will be a thing of the past and you will soon be a fully-fledged toddler. Keep taking the tablets!

 

[ColinJ]

As I just happened to be passing I popped into the cafe and who should I meet but ColinJ!
I think I've already PMed my e-mail address, haven't I? That' probably a more reliable channel of communication.
If you carry on improving at this rate baby-steps will be a thing of the past and you will soon be a fully-fledged toddler. Keep taking the tablets!

Yes, I have your email address so I'll email you a couple of days before a favourable local forecast to see if you are free. (I know that we'd be in the car, but it's always nicer to look at the scenery when the sun is shining!)

 

[potsy]

As I just happened to be passing I popped into the cafe and who should I meet but ColinJ!

Does he look like his avatar now stass?

 

[ColinJ]

Does he look like his avatar now stass?

Ha ha - the CycleChat cafe - we'll be doing the real cafe in a week or so!

I might have a picture taken with Steve H on Sunday so you can judge for yourself!

(I'm only about halfway to avatar-like slimness, and slightly less so since my b-in-law bombarded me last week with chocolate, bread, cheese and other goodies that I normally resist!)

 

[potsy]

Ha ha - the CycleChat cafe - we'll be doing the real cafe in a week or so!

Need more sleep.