GWS ColinJ.. DVT/Pulmonary Embolism

[ColinJ]

Heinz completely over charge for a tin of bean over here too... I don't know what people get out of these expensive designer beans

I either buy cheapo own-brand beans or watch out for special offers. 'Oasis' in HB currently have 2*4-packs of Heinz for £3 which isn't too bad. I always put curry powder, garlic and chillis in my beans so it doesn't really matter what they start off tasting like!

 

[MontyVeda]

I either buy cheapo own-brand beans or watch out for special offers. 'Oasis' in HB currently have 2*4-packs of Heinz for £3 which isn't too bad. I always put curry powder, garlic and chillis in my beans so it doesn't really matter what they start off tasting like!

yes the curry powder is a good one... a nob of butter and splash of milk too for a creamier sauce.

 

[ColinJ]

I said I'd leave it a while, but what the heck ...

Some friends rang me this morning to ask if I could manage a walk. The sun was shining and I have been going stir-crazy so I said yes, though I was apprehensive at the length and severity of the proposed scenic route to the hilltop village of Heptonstall, which would be harder than anything I've managed since last July. However, I'd been feeling a lot better the last couple of days and if I don't take advantage of these good days, then I'm just going to end up stuck in the house, feeling miserable.

On the way up a steep path, we got into a bit of a heated discussion about Lance Armstrong and I found that I could get irate, or walk uphill, but I couldn't do both at the same time! It was quite comical actually, having to stop to rant about the lying, cheating swine because it was making me breathless.

I got to test the camera in my new phone and am pleased with the results. I don't think I will bother carrying a separate camera on future rides and walks.

(That's good enough for my online ride and walk write-ups!)

We called in at 'Towngate Tearooms' in Heptonstall for lunch and then walked back down into Hebden Bridge.

My legs are now feeling tired and stiff, but in a good way. I'm hoping that I won't have any delayed breathing problems from the strenuous walk because that's what puts me off doing more. I want to slowly ramp up the exertion level but don't want to end up scared and breathless every time I do so.

Maybe that forum walk can take place fairly soon after all? Give it another few weeks, and we'll see.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Sorry to hear about your set back, glad you've started to feel better.

 

[trio25]

Rubbish news, but glad that you sound positive!

 

[fossyant]

Good that you are out again mate. Slow and steady, you need to get rid of the clot. You are making good progress.

 

[Arch]

you need to get rid of the clot.

Now, don't talk about Potsy like that....

 

[potsy]

Good that you are out again mate. Slow and steady, you need to get rid of the clot. You are making good progress.

Funnily enough he's not been the same since your Jodrell ride, think the lack of hills did for him

 

[ColinJ]

Funnily enough he's not been the same since your Jodrell ride, think the lack of hills did for him

I blame that fixed-friendly hill!

(I wonder whether some clotting was going on in my very painful right leg on that ride. Months later, the hospital sonologist/sonographer (person doing the ultrasound scan) only checked the most obvious part of my left leg and once he found a DVT he stopped looking for others. I asked why and he said that there was no point since the suspected DVT had been confirmed. the treatment would be the same no matter how many that I had.)

 

[Night Train]

Colin, I will be over your way Wednesday 13th in the morning to get my car serviced. Fancy a coffee/tea/cake?

 

[ColinJ]

Colin, I will be over your way Wednesday 13th in the morning to get my car serviced. Fancy a coffee/tea/cake?

There's a coincidence - I mentioned to someone this afternoon that various CycleChatters had called in to see me on cafe stops in Hebden Bridge recently and I remembered that you'd said you'd be coming over some time.

Yes, I'm free - I'll move my 'fasting day' to Thursday to make way for the cake!

 

[ColinJ]

I managed to resist the temptation to post here for a whole month, but today was a significant day so I thought I'd update you!

I met Night Train for a chat a few weeks ago when he drove over to get his car repaired just down the road from here. We had intended to go for a walk but wintry conditions had returned so we settled for the warmth of the cafe instead.

The weather improved over the next few days and the following week Slower Than A Sluggish Sloth came over to see me. We went for a walk which I thought would be about 4 miles, but it turned out to be 7 - my longest walk since getting ill last July. It was also the hardest, taking in not one, but two of the local hills! I needed a short rest before tackling the second hill, but it was obvious that my health and fitness are continuing to improve.

We went for lunch in Heptonstall, an old village on a hilltop overlooking Hebden Bridge.

As we walked back down, I got a call from bromptonfb who was riding over and wondered if I would be free to meet him. There was a brief 'handover' period, and then STASS drove off to meet some climbing pals, while bfb and I went to a local pub for a chat. We did our good deed for the day when we found an iPhone on the table next to ours. We handed it in at the bar and it was claimed about 20 minutes later by a grateful granddad with his grandson in tow.

So, I am being kept cheerful by seeing some CycleChatters and I am able to do more with each passing month. I think I am still some way off being ready to get back on my bike, but I decided that it was time to organise my first ever 'forum walk' - details in this thread. If you fancy coming along then just post in that thread and I will add your name to the list.

Scary symptoms - chest pains, shortness of breath, heart palpitations and a racing pulse rate - are becoming much rarer. From time to time, I can forget that I am still ill. I was upstairs when the postman knocked a week or so back. I ran downstairs and through to the front door to sign for my parcel and it was only when I closed the door that I realised that I was breathing very hard for such a small exertion.

That brings us to today ...

I just had a very spooky (but pleasing) experience having 7 tubes of blood taken from my right arm ... (I expected it to be 8, but one will be split for 2 tests.)

I am a complete wimp with needles and giving a blood sample in January really hurt so I was feeling apprehensive this time round. The nurse managed to get the needle in fairly painlessly, and I chatted to her while she went about her business. I was looking the other way the whole time because I fainted the last time I watched it being done!

Suddenly, I heard her saying goodbye from the other side of the room. I turned round to see her heading out of the door. She had somehow managed to extract the blood, take off the tourniquet, remove the needle and tape a piece of cotton wool over the puncture wound without me feeling her doing it! I had thought that she was still lining up the tubes and had not actually started taking the blood.

The blood samples will be tested for any signs of fresh clotting and to see if I have a gene mutation which increases my risk of clotting. I am still on Warfarin so there should not be any new clots forming, and I obviously hope that I am not a 'born clotter'! I will see my consultant in a couple of weeks time and be told what's what then.

The forum walk comes a couple of days later, and I will no doubt be reporting back here shortly afterwards. Ciao!

 

[summerdays]

I understand that hatred of the needle - I often have blood samples taken either lying down or at least sitting on the couch so I can lie down if necessary. She sounds a gem - I hope you have the luck to get her again next time

 

[Minotier]

It's easy for us all on the forum to sit at a keyboard and try to imagine how you are coping.
It isn't easy for you to hear about all our wanderings and mishaps whilst having to let your body repair itself and get back to as near normality as it can, hopefully a total recovery.
But be assured we all can imagine and in some cases know what it's like when you cannot do what you want to.
So we can all wish you a speedy return to the barmy world of throwing yourself on your bike down a ridiculous gradient or knacking yourself up by pushing that bit too hard.
Have faith and belief in your wish mate and it will happen, believe me. I have been through it and when that day comes it is the best feeling you can have.
GWS.

 

[ColinJ]

I understand that hatred of the needle - I often have blood samples taken either lying down or at least sitting on the couch so I can lie down if necessary. She sounds a gem - I hope you have the luck to get her again next time

Thanks. Yes, I stretch out on a couch to have the blood samples taken. I had one go at a clinic in Halifax and promptly fainted so we decided it was better for me and better for the staff involved to just have subsequent tests done at home. (I was too damn weak to travel for the first few months anyway.)

Being so squeamish is a bit embarrassing, but OTOH I was cracking jokes about being 3/4 dead when I was taken into hospital, and I have never once felt tempted to say 'why me?' so I suppose you could say that I'm weak in one way but strong in others.

I'm torn between wanting to come off Warfarin and being scared of losing its protection. If I do come off after seeing the consultant, then that should be the end of regular blood testing. In some ways though, I'd like to stay on the drug until I feel well enough to start cycling again. I only feel about 40% recovered now which is a reminder that all is not well, and I worry that clots could start forming once more.

It's easy for us all on the forum to sit at a keyboard and try to imagine how you are coping.

It isn't easy for you to hear about all our wanderings and mishaps whilst having to let your body repair itself and get back to as near normality as it can, hopefully a total recovery.

But be assured we all can imagine and in some cases know what it's like when you cannot do what you want to.

So we can all wish you a speedy return to the barmy world of throwing yourself on your bike down a ridiculous gradient or knacking yourself up by pushing that bit too hard.

Have faith and belief in your wish mate and it will happen, believe me. I have been through it and when that day comes it is the best feeling you can have.

GWS.

Thanks to you too, and to my other well-wishers. I would have found this illness very hard to cope with without the support of my family and close friends, plus many of you on CycleChat!

I feel awkward having an entire thread devoted to me, but I do know that I have increased awareness of DVT and Pulmonary Embolism and that could help prevent other CycleChat members having to go through this, or worse.

I was shocked recently when my older sister told me that our mum had been on Warfarin for a couple of years for DVTs and I never even knew about that or what the condition was. (I think her clots were caused by varicose veins; I'm hoping that we don't have a family clotting gene, but I will find out in 2 weeks time.) It just goes to show how relatively low-profile the clotting problem is, despite its seriousness and how common it is.

It has been hard watching events pass by that I would have loved to have ridden. There is a discussion currently going on by PM between many of us who have ridden 'Spring Into The Dales' together in the past. I had thought that I'd be better by now, but here we are with only 6 weeks to go to SITD and I haven't ridden a bike since July 2012 so there is no realistic chance for me taking part this year. The best I could hope for would be to do what are normally my spring rides in the autumn instead.

I'm going to write a list of things to ask the consultant. One of them will be about how safe it will be for me to really push myself hard in the future, when I think that I am well again. I wasn't superfit before I got ill, but at least I was strong enough to take an awful lot of physical punishment. I don't want to give myself a heart attack by overdoing it when I finally start riding again!

Anyway - it's good to hear that you have got over whatever health issues you had!