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.
Did anyone's anxiety get worse as they recovered? It doesn't make sense but as I have gotten more positive news from doctors I feel myself bracing for another DVT/PE. I'm on high alert constantly. When I walk I'm very aware of my breathing and how my calves feel. Lately I relive the weekend before I was put in ICU every single day. I'm going back to the counselor today as I feel this can't be "normal".
-
Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
-
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.
I'm so glad you're going back to your therapist. Normal or not, there's no reason to have to just put up with anxiety, you know what I mean?
Some of it has to do with my bizarre job situation, and isolated area.
I check my legs, etc...I don't even know what's "normal" anymore, as prior to the pe I pretty much ignored aches and pains. Now I'm hypersensitive and fearful.
I hope your counseling helps, and mine too.
Some days, I think the best thing you can do is awknowledge the anxiety and realize that it might be causing a lot of what you're feeling and experiencing. It won't necessarily make the anxiety go away, but it will help you slowly get back in touch with reality and with the fact that you're gonna be OK.
Also, realize that the anxiety is NOT to be trusted. It'll warp reality and convince you that you're gonna drop dead tomorrow. It is not your friend and it is great that you're getting some counseling to help you cope with it. It'll take over your life, if you let it, and I know you're stronger than that.
It can be really hard to turn off the "hyper aware" feeling after a PE. Many of us are alive because we "felt" like something was wrong and we pushed until we found out what it was. It's really hard to ignore those feelings once they've saved your life once ... but you can start to get a feel for what is normal and what really requires a call to the doctor. It takes some time, but most of us get this sorted out after a while.
Hang in there! So glad you're tackling the anxiety head on!
I'm here today to "celebrate" the 2nd anniversary of my PE. I can't say the anxiety is better. I wasn't too anxious while I was still on warfarin (although one of those ER trips was while I was still on it), but since my "safety net" of meds is gone... yeah, it's easy to think about dying.
And when I got to the point where I was having trouble sleeping because every night I thought I was going to die, I got some zoloft... which doesn't really make me worry less, but it makes me not so anxious/upset/worked up about my worries if that makes sense - I know that I worry, but it doesn't keep me from sleeping and functioning and living life.