Recovery: Two weeks post discharge

I'm learning that a week can be a long time in recovery from a major health event. In my case anyway, this week has felt much more normal in that I've had a lot more energy and so have done more. I'm still sleeping quite a lot and feel that I need at least 8-9 hours per night at the moment, whereas I would have been fine with 6.5-7.5 previously. My days have been quite full, with a mixture of walking, self-enforced tasks around the house, and chasing up my outstanding medical tests. I finally had my CT abdomen/pelvis on Thursday morning (after three phone calls and a little cry on the phone to one of the admin staff) and will hopefully have the results of that on Monday. 

From a physical point of view, I'm relatively pain-free at rest at the moment unless I'm lying flat on my back, and have not had to take any painkillers for chest pain this week, but some for a persistent headache early in the week. In TMI news, I'm on day thirteen of my period at the moment so that is super fun - my poor underwear drawer doesn't know what hit it. A set of sheets has already ended up in the bin so this could get expensive if it happens every month. Oh well....blood thinner life! I will try to self-soothe by buying nice new undies and I have already replaced the sheets.

Walking is feeling easier and I have been able to up the pace a bit without too much chest pain. Inclines are certainly easier. I'm trying to walk 4-6 miles per day depending on what else I'm up to and I may try to up that next week to 5-7, although this may be weather dependent as it's beautiful walking weather at the moment. I'm telling myself that I'm waiting for a clear CT before attempting a run but, to be honest, I don't feel any urgency to run yet as I'm not sure I'm physically ready. Also, I'm scared, so there is that!  

PE recovery: 1st exercise target achieved!

It is with great pleasure that I can report that I managed to walk all four miles today. Woohoo! Whilst there is a tiny amount of mixed feelings about how mundane that target is for someone with my fitness history, I'm trying to put that to the back of my mind. I felt relatively well throughout with only some mild chest pain on inclines, and that stopped as soon as I took the effort back down to what it was on the flat. Another milestone was that I had energy when I got back. I called into the shop, tidied up a bit, and put together some lunch. A few days ago a three-mile walk was wiping me out and I would have had to go and lie down after. Progress!! 

I also feel I got a teeny tiny bit of colour back in my cheeks today, after being deathly pale up until now. See there under my left eye there is a little bit of pink? No?

Recovery one week post discharge

I seem to on a bit of a recovery plateau at the moment, but it is early days I suppose. My chest pain at rest and on exercise has neither improved or disimproved, but I have tapered off any pain medication drastically. Today I took 500mg of paracetamol but that was it. For a couple of reasons, I have the urge not to dull the remainder of the chest pain. I find it reassuring to note that it's still in the same places and that there is nothing new, and when I do try to exert myself a little, being aware of the pain forces me to back off a bit. I failed to achieve the four-mile walk target I set myself but that is mostly due to appalling weather yesterday combined with a trip to the airport with my parents and a GP visit.
My GP was fabulous and ordered the tests that I should probably have had as an inpatient, and also checked my moles. It was due to her that today I finally had a duplex venous scan of my lower limb to rule that out as the source of my clot. Negative, as expected with my lack of leg pain and swelling but at least that is one more thing off the list. I would have felt silly paying for a CT abdo/pelvis to then find out that I had a leg DVT that caused the whole thing. She has also ordered a routine cardiology consult due to an ongoing exercise-related tachycardia issue that it most probably unrelated. And, I also booked an appointment with a dentist for a check-up and oral cancer screen (to my shame, my first dental appointment since I moved here!)
In exercise news, I walked 2-3 miles today. I'm not sure of the exact total as I didn't do a route I'm familiar with and wearing my Fitbit at the moment would be too depressing - it kept buzzing at me in the hospital as I was basically sedentary for three days and that is very unusual for me. Tomorrow, to my knowledge I have no GP, hospital visits, etc (fingers crossed!) so I really hope to hit that four file target, even if it's in two chunks.

Recovery 1 week post diagnosis

It has now been a week since my diagnosis with bilateral pulmonary embolism and I've started to feel more normal. So naturally, I'm starting to think about running. Or rather not thinking about actually running, but thinking about whether I should be thinking about running. There doesn't seem to be a lot of guidance about when to resume normal activity but a lot of "listen to your body" type talk. Much as I'd like to think that I'm good at listening to my body please consider the evidence:

Exhibit A
I had chest pain, dizziness, and nausea two miles into a gentle jog the day my symptoms started that forced me to sit down on the edge of the path. I had run to the end of a dock from my car and then back past it in the opposite direction so I was now less than a mile from my car. Did I listen to my body and walk back, or did I decide to continue on to make it up to six miles? Guess! 

Exhibit B
When chest pain and shortness of breath woke me the following night I went to the local doctor-on-call service and explained my symptoms. When I was prescribed antibiotics and steroids for an infection I knew I didn't have, I still didn't listen to my body and go across the road to the ED and instead sat in traffic on the M50 for 1.5hrs each way and walked around a factory all day most probably with multiple blood clots in my lungs. 

Exhibit C
It took five more days of chest pain before I finally went to the ED and even then I felt like I was making it up and wasting someone's time. This is at the exact same time as knowing deep down that something was terribly wrong!  

All of the above I submit as evidence that although I once considered myself really good at listening to my body, this is no longer the case. So how then, do I begin to reclaim my fitness without overdoing it?

Two days ago I walked three miles slowly with my daughter. I felt fine during and after it, but then had a terrible night and was convinced I had a new clot.
Yesterday I did nothing, partially to do with having two visitors and partially to do with the fact that it rained cats and dogs all day.
Today I again walked three miles with my daughter. This time I took a break at the halfway point to catch my breath and really pulled back on the uphill when I started to feel some chest discomfort. Is this listening to my body? When does that turn into weakness?
As far as running is concerned, I don't think I will try until the chest pain at rest has resolved and until I get a CT scan of my pelvis and abdomen as I want to know that there isn't anything else lurking in there before I shake everything around too much.
Tomorrow? Four miles walking maybe?