Answers

I like it when things fit together neatly.  My diagnosis, which came a short while ago, certainly does this. It completely explains how I've been feeling since yesterday, and likely explains the high pressures identified in my Thursday followup.  

So, Hopkins docs have determined I have multiple pulmonary embolisms.  That is, multiple blood clots that likely formed in my legs during my 30+ hours of bedrest, and traveled to the arteries in my lungs sometime afterward.  Both lungs are affected, with the right lung having the larger group of clots and the largest individual clot.  The location of my pain completely matches up to the location of these clots.  My intuition about how I felt lines up perfectly.

The pain tells a story. It is unfortunate, but the pain is portions of the lungs dying off.  For what it's worth, the pain is felt in the chest wall, originating with the  inflamed, dying areas. While this may sound scary, most patients that have this don't feel any real difference afterward, so the hope is that's true for me.  Because of the great redundancy that the body provides, the affected areas are relatively small.  

My treatment plan involves a blood thinner for at least the next 6 months.  While it does not technically break up the clots that exist, the thinner gives the body the time it needs to do so naturally and helps prevent future clots. I will start on one newer-than-Coumadin medication, Rivaroxaban, that is less likely to lead to unwanted bleeding and doesn't require monitoring.  And while I am still in a fair bit of pain, but we have options to manage that, and it should subside by mid-week.  

It's a great feeling that this diagnosis very clearly matches the symptoms that started yesterday, and it quite possibly explains the higher pressures that Dr. Ringel saw on Thursday.  A conversation with Dr. Ringel will give us a better sense of that likelihood.  He may back off on his tentative plan to inspect the valve with a camera in the Cath Lab as incisions to my legs wouldn't match well with a newly started blood thinner treatment.  We shall see what he says.

We are hopeful to be going home today, and hopeful that this won't affect our travel plans later this week.  Thanks for keeping an eye on me here, and thanks for all of the encouraging words.