So I forgot to mention - yesterday I met with my new pulmonologist. I call him Dr. Lung. He was able to pull up my CT scans at his desk and show me (I hadn't seen them before). Wow - how cool is that to be able to see inside your body?!?!? My ribs are SO COOL!! And you could see super bright white stuff from where the iodine "dye" went into my veins.

And the scans proved it - I am totally flat chested...

And the pulmonary emboli (lots of the suckers, some kinda big, but none in major vessels) look like donuts: bright white working blood vessels (from the iodine dye stuff) surrounding the darker non-conductive clot material donut hole!

All in all, super fun. Of course I wanted to be able to watch my own ganglion cyst hand surgery 10 years ago, too. I love that stuff. (My sister's an ortho surgery nurse, and my mom (biological) is also a nurse. Maybe it's genetic?)

Sort of good news/bad news/bad news: Good news: I am not dead (yet). Bad news: no riding for 6 months, period. He was VERY adamant about that. Bad news again (but maybe we can turn this around): I have over 25% lung impairment - NOT related to the clots. Asthma or ??? More investigative work to be done. At least I am starting to understand why I am such a HEAVY breather while climbing on my bike!