Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
I am feeling much better- lung capacity much improved. Just VERY anxious about my upcoming CT scans to check to see if the clots are gone.
I had the extensive blood tests done with hemotologist/oncologist and got the results about 3 weeks ago (they couldn't pinpoint a cause and nothing pointed to cancer). The doc said that I was probably one of the 40% who wouldn't ever know the cause.
Well, my primary care physician weighed in and decided to add other scans to be sure about hidden causes. Makes me so nervous. I guess he's being cautious.
If I can get through the next week, I am hoping that it is going to be much better.
I had the extensive blood tests done with hemotologist/oncologist and got the results about 3 weeks ago (they couldn't pinpoint a cause and nothing pointed to cancer). The doc said that I was probably one of the 40% who wouldn't ever know the cause.
Well, my primary care physician weighed in and decided to add other scans to be sure about hidden causes. Makes me so nervous. I guess he's being cautious.
If I can get through the next week, I am hoping that it is going to be much better.
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
It's odd that your doctor would recommend repeat CT scans this soon. Usually, if any repeat CT scans are made, it's at the 6 month mark when non-lifers usually get off of the anticoagulants. Sometimes clots just happen for no real reason and it's more of a "well that was weird, let's treat that", especially if you've had the extensive blood tests that pinpoint no causes including genetic factors. Even if the clots are gone, even after 5 minutes, the clots already did damage to your heart and lungs and only time will heal that. Of course it can help with piece of mind, I had a repeat scan done a week after my diagnosis. They really advised against it since it was a lot of extra radiation, but I was terrified and slept well that night.
My clots were pinpointed at my birth control pills that I began taking 19 days prior. At the start they didn't confirm it because we never had evidence that I didn't have a blood disorder. After I was off of my antigoags for 3 weeks I had the blood tests taken for genetic/blood disorders and everything came back normal, thus pinpointing the birth control pills since I'm relatively healthy otherwise.
It's tough in the beginning, but it gets so much easier! I never thought that I would be where I am, but it's such a relief. I remember those first few weeks were absolute torture, but it does get better. And with the help of the kind people on this forum, it's been an easier experience than it would have been otherwise.
Maybe your PCP is just taking advantage of the fact that since you're scheduled for a CT scan already, may as well just take this extra precaution to see if there's something else going on. I know some people have had scans post diagnosis to rule out cancer. I think it's over cautious myself since you're not symptomatic of cancer, and unless he has reason to think something else is going on but it could end up giving you some peace of mind.
I swear those first couple of months after my PE diagnosis, I just tried to peel myself off the ceiling because my anxiety was so high. Really try to do things to calm yourself. Give yourself some positive mantras to repeat. I used to do that a lot, just to refocus my thoughts.
You'll be ok.