Running Saved My Life: A True Story

Not exactly the next topic I expected to blog about. As most of you know I had spent the days leading up to this vacation keeping my mileage for the Bryce Canyon half and double workouts. I wanted to share this experience with all my friends and family as feel like there is not much awareness for PE. Since my experience I've found out that a a few other runners have had blood clots, some not as serious, and others fatal. I've been emailing a guy about switching my status in the Zombie run from runner to Zombie, this guy Brian had clots back in April and recently a friend of his died suddenly while hiking out in CA. 


--My Story--


Leading up to..
Sat 22Jul: Adam and I return from our Vegas/Southern Utah vacation. 4 hr flight turned 6hr due to storms
Sun 23Jul: Exhausted, exhuasted, exhausted. Woke up at noon and felt so well exhausted. At this point hadn't worked out other than horseback riding, a bit of swimming, and hiking. Must be jet lag.
Mon 24Jul: Back to work. A.M -Up early Ab circuit- scale of 1-10 in difficulty, seemed to be a 10. Thought strange, probably still not recovered from our go-go vacation. P.M- 3.0 mile run on treadmill not so much a run on my scale- felt terrible. Hard to breathe, just tired. Again, perhaps another good night sleep is needed. As I laid down my heart started racing and I was super anxious. 
Tue 25Jul: A.M - weights upper body. 4 exercises and only at half the weight and reps typical. Winded. Called Adam and told him, "somethings wrong". Made appointment with primary care for Wed. Crap, I have to wait that long? Heart raced on and off all day, chest pains started later afternoon. Arrived home dizzy, nauseous, exhausted, chest in pain, etc. I had been researching online what might actually be going on with my body. Didn't look good but tried to push those possibilities out of my mind. I tried to nap but was afraid I might not wake up. Symptoms continued. I debated going to the ER. Adam calmed me, and i was finally able to talk myself into thinking everything was going to be o.k. 
Wed 26Jul: Symptoms continued in the morning, in addition to I felt like I had no brain and my sentence structure was way off base. 
11:45: I made it to primary care for my 11:45 appointment. Cathy, who has been my PA for a while now is always amazing. Like my medical mother. I just adore her as she listens to every little things I say and takes it all into consideration. She's known me for years now through my gallbladder issues, kidney stones, sicknesses, you name it she's been there. So she sat me up on the table and in a very mother like fashion told me she was sending me immediately to the hospital for a chest CT scan. She told me she was afraid the worst, but that theres always a chance she could be wrong. After an EKG and blood work I drove myself to the hospital. 
1:30: Arrived at hospital. More blood work. Then Adam arrived. At the time I thought it silly he left work to be with me, thank goodness he was there. They brought me into CT at around 3:30, the wait was long as they wanted to ensure there was no pregnancy and therefore had to wait for blood work results. CT scan went by in a blink of an eye, they inserted the IV took some scans, injected the dye and it was over. As the radiologist was about to take the IV out of my arm he was waved to leave it in. I knew then, at least I thought I knew. 
4:00: The head radiologist walks up to us in the waiting room and says I'm sorry for the wait, we needed to go over the results with your doctor. Its not good. I immediately cried, we stepped out into the hall and he continued to tell us the news. Multiple pulmonary embolisms (ie blood clots) in both of my lungs. Shit, I'm 30 yrs old, I workout all the time, I eat healthy. This feels like such a bad dream. 
4:15- We were told they would admit me to the hospital for a few days for further observation, and to start me on Lovonox and Warfin (Coumadin). As we all know going through the ER is paper work galore with a billion people poking and prodding you. At around 11:00 pm we were finally in a private hospital room. 
The rest is a blur.. 
From here on out it was doctors, nurses, blood work, ultra sounds, injections in the belly. Luckily, Adam was there by my side the entire time sleeping next to me, holding my hand each night. Besides the pain, the emotions were (and still are) overwhelming. 
I heard many times, I'm not the "typical" patient. They expected me to be sedentary and overweight. Neither which explains me, well unless I keep eating Nutella at the rate I currently am. 
The main thing that sticks in my mind, I continue to hear is how lucky I am to be here right now. How close I came...... I was told my workout routine and running most likely saved my life. The 6-8+ clots (The ER doc showed me on the scan but once it got that high I said thats enough), had passed through my heart, hence all the symptoms. I still can't wrap my brain around this, I suppose it will take some time to do so, if ever. 
The cause:
We may never know. Might be birth control, could be the long flight, or a disease I recently found out about on my mothers side of the family called protein S deficiency or perhaps a combination of all of the above. They are unable to determine the ProS def until after my initial Warfin treatment as blood clots naturally elevate the level. If the testing is positive Warfin may become a permanent part of my life. 
Life after the hospital..
I came home from the hospital Saturday. Now its one day at a time. I am still on the shots of Lovonox- thankfully Adam has taken on that job and I can't imagine sticking myself with a needle esp in my stomach. It will take some time to get my Warfin regulated, so weekly appointments to check my INR level will become part of my life for a while, 6 months to be exact. In addition, its a fun filled new lifestyle of little to no alcohol, and yet some more fun to add to my dietary restrictions. No activities where I could possibly bump my head, no sharp objects etc etc etc. Also raises questions on things yet to come in my life, but I guess we will cross the bridge when we get there. I was told I was crazy for thinking about going back to work this week. Doctor said 2 weeks, but we settled on 1. Therefore I'll be back to work on Monday, hopefully. 

Lovonox Shot

What I wish my shot was....

A special thanks:
To so many friends and family for texts, emails, phone calls, cards, flowers, food, and just going out of your way to help me through this time. I won't name you all because the list would be so long. Yet another way I'm blessed.. to have so many people in my life that love and care about me. Adam, as always is my rock- can't imagine a day without him and this experience only solidifies that relationship more, if that is even possible. ~CRAMG~ Bruce and Dale (my in-laws) have went above an beyond to help with meals, the animals, and so much more. In whole insane series of events I have to say thanks to my Dad and Mom (Melissa), not only do they check in and send love daily, but they send the most wonderful PB fudge ever. Not to mention the series of events with Dad's cancer caused me to take that first step running and getting in shape.. had it not been for that....who knows. Also, to all my running friends and family who keep motivating me each and everyday. 

And one more thanks to cousin Rob for a series of sweet messages. He also passed on a message from a friend who also had an experience with PE. I just wanted to share this. Here is what she said, keep in mind this is from a girl I've never met before, it was just touching and something I want to remember. 

"This must be very hard for her, to feel so weak and sick after being so strong. She is fortunate that all that running will make her recovery much easier since she already has a strong heart and lungs. I know that is what they told me, and I had not even run in a year. She may be exhausted now even doing simple things, but it will get easier and better. They sent me home with a walker and told me that I would likely need it for a month, if not longer. I didn't need it after a week. I hope that she experiences a similar progression."
I leave you with some fit-spiration: 

Friends, family, if you aren't leading a healthy lifestyle now I can only encourage you more to do so. If you already lead a healthy lifestyle keep on keeping on.