The daily routine is back to normal and has been that way for more then 6 months. These days I don't even think about the medication, only drawback is that I have to get up from bed early to take the medicine even on a day off.
I gave up mountain-biking. Pretty much decided to sell the bike the minute they told me to not hit my head. I do still have my racer, and run and gym. But for example now in the winter I've been a bit restrictive in running when it is slippery outside, not that I've ever fallen but just do not think that it is worth the risk.
Future
Yep, got the results from my doctor and she told me to buckle up and keep eating xarelto for the rest of my life. I pretty much was set on that from the beginning so it was no real shock.
For now I am planning and training for my next 180 km challenge on the bike, so back to a tight training plan.
I do not think of anything else to write, things are back to normal and I enjoy life fully. Just thought I'd do an update.
Why I write this
I don't write this to feel sorry for myself. Just to share an experience, maybe ease for someone else that has the same diagnosis. You don't have to be old to get this, I was 33. I've always categorized this as something to look forward to when I get older. But life is full of surprises and luckily we humans are capable of adapting :)
This will be my last update in this series if nothing major happens. This post is just for wrapping up things and sharing my training plan and progress for motivation for others. : )
So been a while since last update but things have moved to the better and I think I am back to normal now and starting to get a routine on the xarelto medicine. It is starting to become part of life.
This is a picture of my training calendar for the first 3 months of 2017. I've color coded it to show the time schedule from when I first noticed that something was wrong, to the hospital stay and the recovery period afterwards. When the color coding ends I was able to do a pretty hard workout on a trainer.
This week, went lunch cycling with my team and made a personal best on a hill climb. Did not see that coming.
Also, mid Mars I started to run again to get more intensity on the lungs and as you can see, the pace has increased in a nice fashion even though this weeks run was maybe a little too much. Not far, just 1300 meters but nice progress.
2 months ago, I did not think the progress would be this fast. The doctors told me 3 months recovery until I would be back to normal but I guess it depends on the person and what state you were in before and how determined you are on getting back. Make it a goal and gradually increase the training intensity. Don't forget to rest when your body says so and stop when needed. Little by little, progress will be made and you will be back in no time!
Why I write this
I don't write this to feel sorry for myself or whatever. Just to share an experience, maybe ease for someone else that has the same diagnosis. You don't have to be old to get this, I am myself 33. I've always categorized this as something to look forward to when I get older. But life is full of surprises and luckily we humans are capable of adapting :)
So up to 100% work week this week. It went pretty good actually. I think I was a little extra tired on Monday to Wednesday, but other than that it went pretty good.
On Thursday everything felt good until I sat in the car back home when I started to get a little pain in the lungs, most probably thanks to grocery shopping moments before. I had planned a cycling session for the day so I was in a really bad mood when I came home. First bad mood based on the situation, so far everything has gone quite smooth so I was not expecting a hiccup. After 2 hours of rest I did the cycling session anyway. And it went well. Up to 16 km/h for 15 minutes.
On Friday, I decided to do another session, this time with a little bit higher effort level. Ended up breaking sweat and 18 km/h for 20 minutes.
On Sunday, the first 60 minute session. Average speed 12, but anyway. Feels good.
Bought compression socks this week, and using them after each session as I feel that blood has a little harder to move up from the legs. Maybe that was the cause for this all after all even if they didn't find anything at the hospital. So taking the precautionary route.
All in all, week 5, according to plan. I still try to take it quite easy, not pushing anything because I don't really want a relapse.
Why I write this
I don't write this to feel sorry for myself or whatever. Just to share an experience, maybe ease for someone else that has the same diagnosis. You don't have to be old to get this, I am myself 33. I've always categorized this as something to look forward to when I get older. But life is full of surprises and luckily we humans are capable of adapting :)
Back to work then. This week at 50%, meaning I can go home at lunch and take a nap. Something that I really needed to do every day. So, I am happy that the doctor wrote 50% on this week. Next week I guess will be even harder when it goes up to 100%.
Had some real progress this week. Sat 15 minutes on the trainer on Tuesday, average speed up on 11 km/h compared to 9 the week before and 20 at the same pulse interval normally.
I.e. the limit I have on myself is less than 105 bpm and get off when it starts to feel any tiredness at all.
Normally I use this for endurance training, for at least 2 hours as current endurance level according to strava is < 113bpm. This has probably changed a little now, hence 105. But compared to normally I only manage about 15-20 minutes before I feel something, normally I could go on for hours as it doesn't put any real load on the body.
Other progress is that I don't get out of breath, but too much load causes pain.
Wednesday, went for a walk to the third road sign (about 600m) and back. Did not have to stop, had some pain afterwards so body is not OK but its on the right path.
Thursday, on the trainer again. Up on 12 km/h for 15 minutes at the given pulse interval until I start to feel a little. The feeling originates from my back around the lung area. Not pain, but tiredness, hard to describe.
So a lot of progress this week. Slowly going forward. Next week is back at work 100%, hopefully I'll manage :)
Put my beloved mountain bike on sale this week as well, so if you live in southern Sweden go have a look.
Why I write this
I don't write this to feel sorry for myself or whatever. Just to share an experience, maybe ease for someone else that has the same diagnosis. You don't have to be old to get this, I am myself 33. I've always categorized this as something to look forward to when I get older. But life is full of surprises and luckily we humans are capable of adapting :)
First week went to napping and reading about OpenGL, something that I've tried to write a little about on my coding page. I was really tired and out of breath. Daily walks to the closest road sign (about 200 meters) and back. Really slow walking, out of breath when going just a little too fast. Back home, had to take it easy for a period to get back to normal. Overreaching results in blood taste and pain in back/lungs.
Had a long talk with a nurse from the hospital about Xarelto and how it is supposed to work. Evidently I get a higher dose the first 3 weeks and then it lowers a bit. Really nice to talk about it with someone that actually took their time to explain.
Second week
Had a revisit at the hospital on Tuesday, really out of breath and a little blood taste walking from the parking lot to the doctors office.
Asked my doctor and he said that I should try to activate myself but keep it under the limit of overreaching. Easy to say, hard to do as that wall comes with no warning. One step is OK and the next is out of breath alternatively pain. He extended the sick leave with 1 week 100% and then another week 50%. Told me to not take amlodipine anymore and go check blood pressure again next week.
End of week 2 I managed 2 walks per day to the first road sign.
Third week
Things are starting to go better. On Monday I decided to sit on the bike (on the trainer) for 10 minutes. Really really really slow, like pulse around 100 bpm.
Wednesday, off to check blood pressure (evidently you have to book a time slot in Sweden to do this). 120/85 compared to 160/110 when I got the medication at the hospital. So off those pills at least.
20 minutes real slow on the bike. Felt good. Not overreaching. Still tired but, a lot better. Nice to see progress.
Today (Thursday) I walked 3 times longer then last week. so 600 meters and back (3rd road sign). It wasn't fast and had to stop 200 meters from home as I felt pain and out of breath. So even slower home, but I made it. Tired now afterwards, probably lie down a bit. Lets see if there will be a penalty for this later today or tomorrow.
On Saturday Xarelto will lower to once per day, so I guess its a bit less risky to get papercuts from there on :)
Plan for next week
Back to work at 50% for one week and then 100%. At the time of writing this sounds doable, the original plan to go back 100% on week 3 would have ended in a disaster.
Why I write this
I don't write this to feel sorry for myself or whatever. Just to share an experience, maybe ease for someone else that has the same diagnosis. You don't have to be old to get this, I am myself 33. I've always categorized this as something to look forward to when I get older. But life is full of surprises and luckily we humans are capable of adapting :)
So last week was interesting.
2 weeks ago, Friday I felt really bad. Didn't have any go in the body at all and got really breathless walking a few hundred meters from my car to the office.
I didn't think much of it, once at the office everything went almost as normal. A little out of breath but nothing that stopped me.
In the afternoon when I walked back to my car, the same out of breath situation came up. So I decided to take it really easy over the weekend. Saturday, couldn't walk the stairs at home without getting out of breath. Sunday, the same thing. Monday, decided to stay home from work. Felt a little better. Tuesday even better, a little out of breath still. Was able to climb the stairs without any bigger issues. Decided to go to work the next day.
Wednesday, totally out of breath walking from the car to the office. Halfway (halfway is around 100 meters...) I thought about giving up. Somehow I still managed to get to the office and decided to call a doctor. Got a time the same afternoon. Sitting still in my chair was no problems. Walking to the coffee-machine turned out to be a big challenge.
At four in the afternoon I drove to the doctor, who in turn sent me to the bigger hospital for x-rays of my lungs and papers that told me to stay at the emergency room afterwards to wait for the results. The first pictures didn't tell anything, the doctor at the emergency room decided to run a CT scan of my lungs as well. They decided to take me in over the night and rigged me up with mobile ECG unit. At around 1 a'clock in the night a nurse tells me that I have pulmonary embolism in both my lungs and that I was to receive a fragmin shot to prevent future clots. Needless to say I didn't sleep that much that night, at an age of 33 this was not the thing I thought I'd get. Maybe later but not at this moment.
Thursday, not much happens. Talk to a doctor, he tries to get a time for another CT scan but it has to wait a week. Need to stay at least another night for monitoring.
Friday. Get rid of the ECG unit and can move a little more freely.
Walk up and down the corridor really really slow. Get information that I need to start eating a medicine called Xarelto, for 6 months to start with and then they will do a study and decide if I need to eat it for the rest of my life. At least I can continue to work-out normally.
Need to stay another night, doctor prepares papers so that the weekend doctor can send me home during the weekend.
In the evening during routing check, nurse asks me if I tend to have high blood pressure and I told her maybe? Most times when they check I have over. Turns out I'll get pills against that as well, starting immediately..
Saturday, start with Xarelto . Doctor sends me home. On sick leave for 2 weeks.
So.. I don't know. Just feels like a really abrupt reminder of mortality. I don't think that I've managed to process the implications of this fully yet but for starters I need to decide if I'll continue riding my MTB or to sell it. Evidently head injuries are really really bad when eating blood thinners so probably not worth the risk. Maybe buy an adventure bike instead, just stay clean of the single-tracks from now on.
But first. 2 weeks of reading books, sleeping a little extra, taking it easy and posting cat videos online.
