Damn, girl! I am so sorry to hear this.

Kinda makes me grateful I am so scared of messing with Mother Nature.

Best wishes and healing vibes coming your way.

G

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It's a little like wrestling a gorilla.........you don't stop when you're tired.........you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry you're missing TTT, but it sounds like you're on the mend which is the only really important thing. This is a good reminder that all medication should be taken carefully and only after taking into consideration any potential side effects.

I'm going to try to be at TTT again in 2009. You going back?

yep.. very uncharacteristic of me to do something like that.

Been there, done that. Sorry to hear you're going through it. When it happened to me, they did all kinds of testing to find out why it did. The doc I had at the time was a freaking MORON and misdiagnosed my red, hot, swollen calf several times. By the time it had grown and gone all the way up through my groin, it broke off and went to my lungs. Excruitiating back pain and inability to breathe and I finally demanded someone see me ASAP. Damn lucky I'm still alive. Thank God! Anyway, they came back with some test results that may have indicated a slight increase towards a clot but I'm convinced, especially since I never had any problems before or since (knock on wood) that it was the bc pill. My gyn (new one) thinks the same thing.

Please do what your doc says and follow the treatment plan. Don't be in a rush to get back to "normal". A PE is a pretty significant event. Be glad they found it before anything worse happened.

I was in the hospital for a week. Since I had multiple PEs, and wasn't in "race shape" when it happened, it took me a while to get back to normal. And, it took a while for the clot in my leg to dissolve b/c it had grown so much.

Coumadin is a major PITA. Just keep that in mind. It takes a while to get it stabilized. Watch your diet. You may feel fatigued at first on it--that could also be a symptom of the PE. It does get better in time. And, hopefully, you won't be on it for very long.

Good luck!

Sounds like you went through a lot of crap!... dang

Also...

What I'm trying to say with my e-mail is READ THE "WARNING SIGNALS" and listen to your body. And stupid me for messing with Mother Nature !!

Not stupid. You can't judge yourself based on what you know now........you made decisions based on what you knew then and learned from what happened.

Don't beat yourself up. It's counterproductive........yes, I have been learning this myself.......the hard way, as usual.

G

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It's a little like wrestling a gorilla.........you don't stop when you're tired.........you stop when the gorilla is tired.

Yep.... 2009..and on !!

Oh no! Thank goodness you figured it out! I'm sorry about the cumadin and missing the TTT, but hope you will make a full recovery and fast.. so scary. Do you have to be on the cumadin for a long time?



I had this done: http://novasure.com/ 20 min in office procedure, no flow ever again, for anyone looking for an alternative that might be safer.

Cheryl I'm so sorry about your PE. I hope you have a speedy recovery. Thanks for this post. I was just talking to my girlfriend today and told her I was really thinking about going on the pill. I don't mind the flow so much. It's the freaking menopausal symptoms that I hate. After reading your post I guess I'll live with insomnia , night sweats and crazy mood swings. Patty

They've said 3 to 6 months... Guess it's one of those things they just keep testing your blood to figure things out.

Yep, lots of blood tests. At first, you may have to go once a week or so. After about a month, it should stabilize, especially if you pay attention to your diet (lots of things with Vitamin K in them will throw it off). Hopefully, you'll get to testing about once a month then and then it's not such a huge pain. Be careful with any pain meds other than tylenol too.

Good luck! Take care of yourself!

And, yes, ladies, be careful with this stuff!

I wanted to pm you but it says I can't .... I have a stupid question not sure I want it posted ..lol

Cheryl,
I'm so sorry about the PE and hope that you are on the road to recovery. I will miss seeing you out at TTT but there is always next year. Take care of yourself.

Chris

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2015 Season: American TTT
Ironman Louisville.

Been there, done that as well. Several years ago, I ended up with a massive blood clot (groin to knee) and multiple pulmonary emboli--blood clots all over my lungs. One week in the hospital and over a year on coumadin. No risk factors other than birth control pills, perhaps combined with dehydration. It was definitely a major bummer all the way around. At that point, I passed the mantle of birth control to my husband. We stalled on that vasectomy just a little too long.

I'm convinced that women athletes are at a much higher risk for oral contraceptive-related clotting. I think the combination of low heart rate with the increased potential for clotting caused by both oral contraceptives and dehydration is a major high risk situation being overlooked by the medical community. I personally know five women athletes who have had a dvt or pe episode related to bc pills. Not "know of" five women, but actually know these women. When the overall blood clot rate among birth control pill users is given as 1 or 2 in 10,000, it seems a little odd to me that the rate is so much higher in my little world. I sure would like to see a study done. Here's a prominent woman athlete who recently had a horrible dvt episode, again related to bc pills: Kikkan Randall

This really is not something to ignore. If you need to use bc pills, try to at least use the ones that are considered safer. There is more clotting with pills that use the progestogens desogestrel and gestodone vs. levonorgestrel, norithisterone, and ethynodiol. The Ortho Evra patch is known to have a higher clotting risk. Like I said, I don't think doctors have made the link, so it falls on us to do the best research we can to determine what's safe for us as women athletes. Unfortunately, there is often no good way of knowing.

you are freaking kidding me! so sorry to hear about this and what you are going through! i really hope they are going to resolve this for you???!

In my haste to get on my "we're being neglected by the medical community" soapbox and then run off to a meeting, I neglected to send my best wishes to you. I know it's all horrible, but be thankful you were in good physical condition, otherwise your lungs may have completely given out. Lung function will come back, gradually, although you will undoubtedly be frustrated along the way. Right when I was at my highest level of feeling sorry for myself, a local 15 year old girl dropped dead on her way to school from a pulmonary embolism. That really put things into perspective for me, although it didn't necessarily stop me from feeling sorry for myself. It will get better, but it will take time. There's no magic bullet to this. Take care of yourself!!

Woah: "I start having problems with breathing, I don't feel like I'm getting enough oxygen, My running is not fun, the little races I was doing were poor performances."

What else did you notice? Chest tightness? Occasional lower chest pain? How did you feel on bike vs. swim vs. run? The reason I ask is that I was just trying to run at altitude recently (not that high even 7000') and I couldn't breathe. hands and ankles became swollen too. Heck, over the last few months, running has become harder and harder, and I'm at sea level. I've been on the pill since 16. Wonder how I ask my GP about this.... hmmm

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"How bad could it be?" - SimpleS

Wow-glad to hear you're okay!

I took the pill to control period for about 4 years and stopped last summer bc I figured the risk wasn't worth it. It was sort of a random decision based on health insurance and age, but SO glad now I did.

There should be more info out there about this stuff-does sound like maybe it affects athletes more.

Em

Thanks everyone for the well wishes and info !!
HeidiC... your "soap box" is very appreciated, that's what I was hoping to bring
to the Forum. Information from people that have been there/done that and can
pass it on.

I wear a HR monitor.... what I noticed is my heart rate wasn't elevated but I felt my
effert was. Like when I did a few 5k' races, I was racing as hard as I could, HR should
have been in the 170's ...it was in the High 150's and I was working way too hard for it
to only be in the 150's.
Also just little things... I even stuggled to get air if I talked to fast.


What else did you notice?
I never had pain and never made a "noise"

Chest tightness?
Not really ... tightness because I was trying to hard to breath.

Occasional lower chest pain?
No

How did you feel on bike?
The bike I felt the least problem

How did you feel swim?
Swim SUCKED... I was having trouble holding my breath to do flip turns.


If I were you I'd question !!

I'm so glad you're ok!

I gave up on the pill when my doc thought I had a probable DVT after a red-eye the night after a race. She said it wasn't worth the risk, but left the decision up to me. I'm curious to see whether Nuvaring ends up with a lower clot risk. Nuvaring is the cat's pajamas.

Jodi

OMG! That's so funny. That was exactly what I noticed. I was going to put that in my earlier post, but it was already too long ;-). I'm a swimmer so flip turns aren't an issue for me, but I could not make it through a flip turn without feeling like I was going to burst. I couldn't alternate side breathe either. Couldn't hold my breath to take three strokes, and I have a really fast stroke turnover. In spite of my significant dvt, the first symptoms I noticed were the breathing problems, not the leg issues. I guess as athletes we're used to leg pain, but the breathing difficulty was new.

I think the week I was at my worst I was only swimming, so I can't give info about symptoms while running or riding. But I do remember being winded walking up stairs and, like you said about talking too fast, I remember having to interrupt a phone conversation to catch my breath. My resting pulse was high for me (low 70s), even though the hospital nurses kept blowing that off ("that's normal"). I don't remember chest pain before I was diagnosed, but, geez, I had incredibly horrible middle back pain while I was in the hospital. It was excruciating!!

Here's a link to an article about a female college runner who had a PE and her symptoms. It's old--they use more sophisticated imaging now (CT scan). AndyPants, if it feels unusual to you, I would have it checked out.

Just something funny when I was in the Hospital... hooked up to the machines...
I kept setting off the alarm. My HR was usually 42-44 but when it went to
38 the alarm would go off. The nurses eventually realized to just ignore it.

So in 17 years in medicine, I have only seen 2 DVTs from birth control pills, both this year - one in a marathon runner.
I think traveling to races poses a higher risk than racing and training - flying is a known risk factor for DVT. Being over 30 is a higher risk factor for DVT. Smoking is a risk factor for DVT.
The patch's risk is 1 in 10,000 higher than the pill risk. The second generation progestins have NOT in the end shown to be riskier than the older progestins.
Nuvaring would theoretically be a lower risk as the blood levels of hormones are lower.

I am really sorry you are going through this and that others on this forum have had to deal with this as well.

I just don't want to see women suddenly be afraid to be on OCs when the risk is astronomically small.

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cat
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