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.
Okay, I know this might sound like a stupid request, but I am second guessing myself these days. I'm almost 6 weeks post PE and it's almost like I have forgotten how to properly breathe. I am scheduled to wear a holter heart monitor for 24 hours on Thursday and I am to report when I feel out of breath. I think anxiety is already kicking in and it's only Tuesday.
I just folded a load of laundry and put it all away, and yes I felt out of breath.... but did I before my PEs? I can't even seem to remember what normal life was. Or what normal breathing was for that matter.... sorry to be ranting.
I know its a weird request it's been one of those days. On top of everything else I started with a sore throat yesterday, had my INR checked today (2.2 - good!), and the nurse thinks I'm fighting off a virus. ugghhh.
If you can put it into words would you please explain what you feel when you consider yourself SOB?
I just folded a load of laundry and put it all away, and yes I felt out of breath.... but did I before my PEs? I can't even seem to remember what normal life was. Or what normal breathing was for that matter.... sorry to be ranting.
I know its a weird request it's been one of those days. On top of everything else I started with a sore throat yesterday, had my INR checked today (2.2 - good!), and the nurse thinks I'm fighting off a virus. ugghhh.
If you can put it into words would you please explain what you feel when you consider yourself SOB?
Funny you mention laundry. I'd had a steadily deteriorating "can't get enough air" situation, happening more often with less-demanding tasks. One day it was coming to a head. Leaving a customer site, I hossed tools back into the van and it burned the throat to catch up the breath. That night, same thing carrying an armload of damp laundry up the steps, but that time it came along with tingling in the extremities. Off to the urgent care, the ER, and 3 days hospitalization.
To this day, even with all the recovered ultra-fitness activies I could return to, I still have trouble with a flight of stairs, just like everyone else.
You may wish to ask your doctor about using one of those finger-pinching oximeters. They appear to be cheap. They can at least quickly quantify if you are short of oxygen in addition to feeling SOB. I believe the old normal would lilkely have been 95% or better O2 saturation as measured with one of those things, 86 per cent if you have mildly acute PE or pneumonia, with some chronic emphysemics going around at 75-80 per cent range. As you could imagine, they feel SOB all the time.
If you see a pattern to your O2 saturation then you can see when it shows signs of improvement.
For me, it wasn't being out of breath unless I was exercising, at which point I knew something was really wrong, struggling to get a breath. Other times, it was more insidious, manifested by a couple things. First, I felt like I had to constantly breathe in really deeply to fill the lungs. Second, it felt as if someone was squeezing my lungs just lightly....
As for the O2 sensor, I have no faith in thoe related to my PEs. The morning of the day I went in with multiple bilateral PEs, my pulmonologist had me do an oxy walk (10 minute walk recording 02 levels every minute). I was 98% +. 4 hours later I was in the ER.
The only time post PE that I ended up back in the ER was a night when I kept feeling that I had to take a deep breath every few minutes. Everything checked out fine at the ER and it went away after a few hours.
I also remember that after the PE I kept waking myself up in a panic as I'd drift off to sleep. As my breathing would get deeper ( because I was falling asleep) I'd panic and think "why am I breathing heavier?" CRAZY right?
Good luck with your tests and try to relax :)
My asthma guy last week told me to take a deep breath, hold it a few seconds, let it out, and hold it a few seconds. Repeat a couple of times. (Don't do it too many times in a row... you'll get dizzy!) He had me doing this on the hour for all the time I was awake during my six days off due to SOB last week. It did seem to keep "anxiety-SOB" at bay and helped me feel a little more in control.
But, yeah, for a long time post-PE I got SOB all the time ... it is unsettling but eventually I think it starts to return to a more "normal" state of being.
When I'm SOB it feels like I can't take a deep breath or like something is squeezing my lungs.
When I was in the ER & ICU with my PE's my saturation never fell below 95%, most of the time it stayed right at 99%.
I find that there are times when I feel the need to take an extra deep big breath. It feels as if it is a top up breath as the ones before hand haven't quite delivered what I needed them to deliver.
I'm still only a few weeks out from my last PE and am still getting chest pain on breathing so perhaps I'm subconsciously trying not to breathe as much or as deep to lessen the chest pain which may be making me feel a bit more SOB at times.
I really appreciate all of your advice. Just hoping that one day I can feel normal again, and let go off all this anxiety.
Take care,
ld