My year of living less dangerously. Aviation related

Dateline; Breckenridge CO. April 6, 2013. Top of T-bar, elevation ~ 12,101'

It was spring skiing, and the lower stuff gets mushy in the afternoon, so I was doing my workouts up on the high stuff. Sun was out, temps in the low 40s' and I was in an afternoon kind of mood with modest sweating, high pulse, respiration, and prolly fairly high BP. I just let go of the T-bar and was ready to go tips down when I had trouble catching my breath. I stood there for a few seconds and noticed my peripheral vision going away. hmmmmm, this is not a good sign. Now I've got ringing in my ears and serious tunnel vision. Ruh-roh, I'm having hypoxia!

So, I get out my water bottle, and have a sip. Take my skis off and sit for a minute. But wait - things are not improving at all. Hard to breath, and now my chest hurts on the right. Bigger ruh-roh. Well, being the doofus I am, I strap on my skis, and take a mild, slow traverse down to Northstar, and traverse that back to the base. By now, I knew something was seriously wrong. I had some aspirin in my car, and took those with water.

My vision was slightly better, but still had ringing and hard to breathe. I drove back to my place down south, and as I got out of the car, I couldn't stay vertical very well, so off to the hospital. When I got there I told them I wasn't feeling well, and I must have been whiter than usual, cause they started putting things in my arm, and listening to my chest, and taking blood, and a scan or two.

I figured it out on my own, and told them I had a pulmonary embolism. The doctor confirmed it and said it was blocking my right inferior and partial right superior vein. I was done flying.

After lying on my back for 4 days, getting stuck in the belly and taking the cure I was discharged. I self-grounded and placed an ad for my plane. The first two guys that showed up called me back and wanted to buy it, so it went for a bit over what I paid.

I contacted my local AME, and explained it, and he said no way, you'll have to go LSA if you want to keep flying. So I started looking at various LSA planes. Then, I got in contact with an AME specialist, who said he'd give it a try, but if I didn't pass the prelim, he wouldn't submit the form so I wouldn't be denied and could still go LSA. No down side so we got busy.

After some more tests, and sending in a metric shyteload of paperwork, things were looking up. I got my 3rd class SI in Dec 2013, seven months after my clot. Was still looking at the LSA stuff, but really I couldn't find what I wanted in my price range. I still wanted a four seat cruiser. In Dec and Jan I started looking at Bonanzas. I saw about 7 of them until I found the one I liked. Sadly it was in WA state. Well, we worked out a deal and I went and picked it up last week.

I flew out of Yelm WA, and went straight at Mt Rainer, and flew around that for a bit. Went over Mt St Helens, and down into N CA. Went over Crater lake, and stopped at Big Bear for lunch and a break. After that I went up through central AZ, through Sedona red rocks, and flew through the towers at Monument Valley. After that, it was over to Taos for a break, and then into TX and home.

It's been quite a year. Glad I'm back in the saddle. I won't take my medical for granted anymore. See my plane in the 'show us your plane' thread. Same color as my Ferrari!

 

Each case is of course different. I have a defect in one of my clotting agents in my blood. It appears I would have made a good Roman soldier cause I clot quickly, too quickly. As for prevention, it's what you might expect. Don't sit still for long periods(like in a GA plane...), keep hydrated, good diet, exercise.

The mortality rate for a PE is about 40% or a bit less. If the large clot gets stuck in the branch of the vein feeding into the lung, then of course the O2 <> CO2 exchange can't get through and you slowly black out from lack of Oxygen saturation in the blood. I don't know anything about blowing holes in the lung, but that might be a side effect of the person trying to breath so hard to exchange CO2 or something.

I encourage anyone who flies over 9000 feet to use a portable pulse oxymeter. It fits over your finger and reads out the saturation percent. Not very costly, and you can get one on ebay or Amazon.