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.
Sat and Sunday were odd days. I felt "funny" all weekend. I was jittery, overly exhausted, kept losing my balance when I stood up to go to the bathroom, my vision would get all blurry at times and after some blinking, it would go back to normal. It was like I had troubles breathing, like I needed to get more air into my lungs, but I couldn't. I finally called my doctor on Sunday and he told me to go to ER. So off I went. They did a Cat scan of my head, ruled out a stroke or TIA, they did a chest xray, everything looked the same there, checked my INR and that was 3.26 in which the ER doctor told me it was dangerously high and they were worried about me bleeding. But in the end, they admitted me and they thought all those symptons were that I was on to high of doses of pain meds. Now mind you, I have a VERY large saddle pulonary embolism covering most of both lungs!!!!
This morning the hospital doctor told me he thinks its a mixture of the pain meds and anxiety. This is the same doctor that told me that I should not have any pain from a PE after about 2 weeks and basically accused me of lying. I was PISSED!!! I have had several other doctors tell me that it is not uncommon to have chest pains, 6 months or a year after first being diagnosed with a PE! I immediately called my family physician and told her what this doctor said and she too was PISSED!!! She said that doctor should have NEVER made that statement and she asked me for his name and I guarentee she will not leave this alone.
This is soooooooooooooooooo frustrating for me! I broke my right leg and severely sprained my left ankle one month ago. 2 weeks ago I was having severe chest pains and was rushed to ER where they found a HUGE saddle pulmonary embolism and was told by several doctors I was very lucky to have made it thru it. But now I have a doctor telling me I shouldn't have any chest pains anymore! He said most people don't have chest pains after 2 weeks! Its been 16 days and the PE's are both still there, I also have 2 clots in my broken leg, its been 1 month since I broke my ankle and it has not healed at all yet!!!
I honestly believe a prerequisite of being a doctor is that you must have had a PE if your going to treat someone with a PE, you must have had a broken bone if your going to trat someone with a broken bone etc.... I bet then these doctors would be a little more sympathetic huh? Wouldn't that make our recovery time alot more easier???
This morning the hospital doctor told me he thinks its a mixture of the pain meds and anxiety. This is the same doctor that told me that I should not have any pain from a PE after about 2 weeks and basically accused me of lying. I was PISSED!!! I have had several other doctors tell me that it is not uncommon to have chest pains, 6 months or a year after first being diagnosed with a PE! I immediately called my family physician and told her what this doctor said and she too was PISSED!!! She said that doctor should have NEVER made that statement and she asked me for his name and I guarentee she will not leave this alone.
This is soooooooooooooooooo frustrating for me! I broke my right leg and severely sprained my left ankle one month ago. 2 weeks ago I was having severe chest pains and was rushed to ER where they found a HUGE saddle pulmonary embolism and was told by several doctors I was very lucky to have made it thru it. But now I have a doctor telling me I shouldn't have any chest pains anymore! He said most people don't have chest pains after 2 weeks! Its been 16 days and the PE's are both still there, I also have 2 clots in my broken leg, its been 1 month since I broke my ankle and it has not healed at all yet!!!
I honestly believe a prerequisite of being a doctor is that you must have had a PE if your going to treat someone with a PE, you must have had a broken bone if your going to trat someone with a broken bone etc.... I bet then these doctors would be a little more sympathetic huh? Wouldn't that make our recovery time alot more easier???
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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 recall that upon discharge from the hospital, I was given a list of things that should trigger a trip back to the ER. One of them was abdominal pains. As it happened, I previously developed PE over the course of weeks with no pain.
Sure enough, first night out of the hospital came the pain, in the renal area. The next day it migrated to a most stabbing kind all the way up to the shoulders. Off to the ER. The doc on duty got ahold of my chart, and gave me the run-down that I had been prescribed a protocol already and nothing more could be done; but at least he did chime in that various pains could be expected "as you recover". Sure enough, each day brought pain to someplace new. That was the only time in all my days when I took pills for pain.
I knew it had turned the corner the first morning I woke up pain-free.
Jo
They discovered that I had orthostatic hypotension, which means my blood pressure was dropping when I got active. It was causing the blurry vision, dizziness, etc. We're still trying to figure out what the connection is between the hypotension and the PEs, but it got a lot better when I added more electrolytes to my diet (potassium, magnesium, calcium, salt).
Hope you get it figured out! Having a doc who will listen to you is critical!
If it weren't for all of you writing and sharing your symptoms, I would have been so extremely frustrated. I agree they need to experience this to have more compassion towards us.
i totally agree with you! this forum is super!
Here's the thing. YOU know what you feel. The rest doesn't matter.