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.
Hi everyone,
Haven't posted in a while because I was doing well...
I went to emergency a couple of weeks ago with bad abdominal pain. My white blood cells count was very high and my d-dimer was positive which got the doctors pretty worried. I'd had some appendix issues in the past but it just got better on its own. This time the pain got worse. I was pretty sure I had appendicitis but the docs wanted to rule out another PE (I had one in 2012 when I was pregnant). They did some kind of a scan called a VQ that apparently uses less radiation. I've already had what I feel are too many scans for my age (42) and I was trying to avoid a CT. The scan was clear and I ended up getting emergency surgery for appendicitis. The appendix was already ruptured and there was infected liquid around it. Before the surgery I asked the surgeon if they were going to give me thinners during the surgery and they said probably but I never found out whether they did or not.
I have depression and anxiety. Also my dad died just a few months ago so I'm still grieving. My main problem is I still have pain in my lower right abdomen and I don't understand why since I don't have an appendix anymore. I've been debating going back to emergency to tell them about the pain. I've been trying to book a follow up appt with the surgeon but because of the holidays I can't get through to anyone. The emergency rooms at the local hospitals are also completely overflowing with people (I live in Canada) because of the holidays and flu season etc...
I guess I'm just trying to calm myself down. Afer the surgery my lungs didn't feel great and I was worried about a PE. I think it was all the inflammation from the appendix and it affected my diaphragm which made my breathing a bit painful. But that's calmed down and my lungs feel fine.
Besides the abdominal pain which has me worried, I guess I'm just frustrated about this stupid PE always at the back of my mind. Is it a PE? is a question I've always got at the back of my mind. Will it come back? It's stressful.
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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.
I can’t imagine why you’d get blood thinners during surgery since it was cause more bleeding. Some docs will have you on thinners ost surgery to prevent clotting post surgery. I know when I had my gall bladder removed, they pump you with air during the surgery so the can see everything inside you. My breathing and chest felt weird for a day or so after surgery because of that. So if they did that for your surgery that could explain why your breathing was weird. Also when I had my gall bladder removed, I still had some pain for months after. Maybe that’s common after an appendectomy as well?
Can you see your Primary Care doctor? That may help you sort everything out.
Sorry about your dad.
I guess I was expecting the pain to be completely gone after the appendectomy but I guess I'm still healing.
Hopefully visiting your doc can give you some peace of mind.