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 woke up this morning looking forward to the day I go to open my blind and they roll back down and the metal weight knocks me in the forehead. I called my doctor at 8am because I needed INR order sent to hospital so i can get lab drawn. I have told him what happened I told him and he said how hard I said I have a bump no bruise but hurts when I press on it. Nothing more than hitting a cupboard. He said it would be highly unlikely and not to worry. Right!!!! My INR is only 1.9 and I don't take Lovenox tonight I havent had a headache or any problem except extreme anxiety and have been worrying non stop. I told my doctor I wanted off the meds I had PE because doctor didn't diagnose DVT. It was due to hysterectomy 2 months ago and all was due to surgery. Thy cant stabilize the Coumadin an for me the benefit does not out weigh the risk at this point. I am terrified that I could have a slow bleed and I won't wake up but he said I would be showing symptoms by now it's been 12 hours not to worry. Has anyone else had a bump on head? I just want off this stuff and start living without fear I am more scared of the meds than the PE risk. Help
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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 completely understand the anxiety. I flipped out last week over swelling in my right leg and what I perceived as shortness of breath (probably due to high humidity and heat). I hadn't had any problems for months, but I got worried about a number of things (other stresses in my life adding to it), and out of the blue, had what was probably a panic attack. Sometimes I think the psychological impact of having a PE/DVT is worse than the physical one (and take longer to overcome).
Do you have someone who can check in on you during the night? If you live alone, do you have a friend who works nights to can give you a call or stop by your house later just to make sure all is OK? There have been a few nights when I had to ask my husband (who usually goes to bed 2-3 hours after me) to make sure he could wake me up before he went to sleep. Knowing he was going to check in on me helped relieve the anxiety.
Hang in there!
KS
KS
On a side note... my clots were caused by pelvic surgery too. I'm almost 6 months out (2 more weeks to go), but without knowing for sure (ie. repeat CT scan), I wouldn't consider coming off warfarin before 6 months. Yes, the side effects stink. I have had a small GI bleed, a bruise about 3 inches around on my throat following a trip to the dermatologist for a needle biopsy, and have completely freaked out on MANY occasions. The thing about clots... they can move in a second and be instantly life-threatening. The bleeds that warfarin can cause generally give you some time to get medical help and resolve the problem. It took me a while to rationalize this to myself, but I would rather suffer for my 6 months of warfarin than wind up back in the hospital with more clots. Heck, many people on here will take warfarin everyday for the rest of their lives, if they can do that, I can survive 6 months! :)
I could be wrong, but if you're not showing any symptoms, I'd be pretty surprised if you had something serious going on up there.
Take a deep breath ... and maybe another one, since you sound pretty stressed out.
I've been on warfarin a total (in my whole life) of about three and half years. I've whacked myself, tripped on things, bumped my head, and so on and so on. Never had anything cause a major problem or long-term issues. Bruises, sure. Even a bleed into my foot once that caused a big bruise and made it uncomfortable to walk ... but nothing major. Nothing that I'm not willing to go through to avoid dying from clots.
You still have a skull, which will protect your brain since that is what it is designed to do. You might get a bruise on the outside of your skull, but it doesn't sound like you cracked your skull or broke your skull, so the chance of bruising underneath seems pretty slim.
You are only two months into this recovery process. I know you have a cause for your clots and probably you aren't likely to re-clot ... I get that. BUT, the warfarin is helping you heal now. It makes it easier for the body to dissolve your existing clots, which in turn will help you heal. They choose 3-6 months because it means that the "perfect storm" that caused the clots originally is probably past and your body has had a good solid shot at repairing the damage.
Also, many people have a tough time stabilizing with their INR. 1.9 is pretty close to being in range, so I don't think you're a hopeless case by any means there.
It sounds like you think you're safe from clots and that the only thing that could be a problem right now is the warfarin and I really don't think that is the case. I mean, if we could all come safely off warfarin after two months, they'd do that, right?? I can't imagine they'd be keeping us on this drug for all that extra time just for the heck of it. BUT issues with warfarin can be found, caught, and dealt with. Clots can kill you instantly.
Take a deep breath. You're going to be OK.
Just thinking out loud here---- wouldn't a low INR (and 1.9 isn't really that low) just mean that the blood would clot a trifle easier? Wouldn't that mean that a knock on the head wouldn't be as likely to produce bleeding?
I would think that, again, just noodling, that if the INR was too high a knock on the head might be something to get a little more concerned about.
Hope everything in o.k. for you-----
I cracked my head so hard on a beam that hangs over my porch last year that it almost knocked me over. I saw stars, and had a nice knot and bruise and it hurt to touch, plus I was on lovenox when it happened. For a second, I thought, holy crap, now I've done it. But I just tried to be mindful in case I started feeling weird and I was fine.
The skull is a super durable part of our anatomy, given it needs to protect our brains. I think it's good to keep an eye on things and you were wise to call your doc just to get their feedback but generally, it's not a cause for real concern.