My husband was actually in the supermarket picking up wine that I would normally spend Friday night drinking! So much for a quiet night in!
Earlier in the day I had gone to my GP after spending the night in so much pain I had to sleep sitting upright on my sofa. I stocked up on Rennies assuming it was a bad case of trapped gas or a stomach virus combined with a pulled muscle. My GP agreed it probably was just muscle pain but took a precautionary blood test to rule out a pulmonary embolism. I bought some deep heat and went home thinking I would hear nothing and feeling like a bit of a malingerer. That evening I got the call from my GP. After being admitted, a CT scan confirmed multiple pulmonary embolisms on both lungs. After a second night on the ward I was discharged with blood thinning injections to do myself plus warfarin and I am back at the hospital every 3 days for blood checks.
So my 2015 race season has come to rather an abrupt halt. Although I actually don’t feel too bad apart from some chest pain and tiredness; until the clots disperse my lungs and heart are under stress. So I am taking it easy and will build back up to exercise and eventually training. I will be on Warfarin for at least 3 months so although I can ride I will need to be careful of knocks/scrapes and obviously try not to fall off!
Quite a few people have asked how/why this has happened. This is why I wrote this blog – to raise awareness of the risk factors as I am sure others share some of these.
My risk factors were as follows;
* I was on an estrogen based contraceptive pill
* I had been on a long haul flight in March and have been on over 10 flights this year
* I quite often spend long periods sitting in the car following races and am probably dehydrated during this time.
* I was involved in a crash at Bedford 3 day which although seemed very minor at the time resulted in a sore calf for about 3 weeks afterwards. This could have been a DVT that travelled up as most PEs result from lower leg clots.
It may have been the perfect storm of all of the above but I bet I am not the only one who can tick one of these factors. So if you get any sort of unexplained chest/shoulder/back pain especially after a lower leg pull/strain, get it checked out. On long car/plane journeys make sure you break up the journey with stops and have a walk around if possible.
I have also had lots of people telling me what bad luck this is. Yes this could be seen as bad luck however I actually see it as very GOOD luck. If I hadn’t gone to my GP when I did and if he hadn’t been as thorough the PEs may not have been found until it was too late – PEs are the second leading cause of sudden death. So I think I have been incredibly lucky!
When something like this happens it also brings perspective. Whilst in hospital I did not give any thought to racing, results, training and so on. What did lift my spirits and what I did think about were my family and friends, including my Carnac Planet X team mates who have been amazingly supportive.
So during my recovery time I plan to spend more time with the friends and family that I often neglect whilst focusing on racing and I hope to get to some races to support my team mates from the sidelines.
Sometimes things don’t go to plan but every situation has positives and I certainly plan to focus on those and be thankful for my good luck over the next few months.
For additional information on DVT and how to take steps to avoid it take a look at the NHS website - http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Deep-vein-thrombosis/Pages/Causes.aspx
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