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.
OK, another strange question for you guys.
One of the strangest symptoms that started right after my PE hit that clued me in that something was wrong was that I started yawning like crazy.
The first time I really remember noticing was like the day after it hit and I was standing washing dishes and I could NOT STOP YAWNING!! It was ridiculous. I wasn't tired, I just couldn't quit yawning.
I've never really brought this symptom up to anyone yet, because once I did get diagnosed, I figured it would improve as my breathing improved. But, the thing is, I'm STILL YAWNING like crazy now at nearly 4 months out. Like HUNDREDS of times a day!!
If I get up and walk across the floor, I'm going to yawn. If I stand for more than a minute, I yawn. And it's just continuous!! Like 20 times within 10 minutes. It's ridiculous, and embarrassing!!
I'm going to bring it up when I see my neurologist again next month, but I was just wondering if this was something familiar to any of you?
My body has been completely REWIRED, it seems, since this whole PE experience came into my life!! :(
One of the strangest symptoms that started right after my PE hit that clued me in that something was wrong was that I started yawning like crazy.
The first time I really remember noticing was like the day after it hit and I was standing washing dishes and I could NOT STOP YAWNING!! It was ridiculous. I wasn't tired, I just couldn't quit yawning.
I've never really brought this symptom up to anyone yet, because once I did get diagnosed, I figured it would improve as my breathing improved. But, the thing is, I'm STILL YAWNING like crazy now at nearly 4 months out. Like HUNDREDS of times a day!!
If I get up and walk across the floor, I'm going to yawn. If I stand for more than a minute, I yawn. And it's just continuous!! Like 20 times within 10 minutes. It's ridiculous, and embarrassing!!
I'm going to bring it up when I see my neurologist again next month, but I was just wondering if this was something familiar to any of you?
My body has been completely REWIRED, it seems, since this whole PE experience came into my life!! :(
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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.
My asthma doctor said that sometimes we just start to breath atypically after an event like this. For me, I'd just get hyperaware of my breathing several times a day, which could easily set the anxiety off running.
He had me do a simple exercise to fell like I was more in control of things. Once an hour, I was supposed to take a deep breath, hold it to the count of 5, let it out, hold to the count of 5. Repeat twice (only twice!). And it helped! About two days of this and I stopped having so many episodes where I was just overly focused on my breathing. I knew I could get the air in, and it helped relax me in a lot of ways.
What I experience is that I yawn, but it feels "incomplete" if that makes any sense, so I yawn again, and it still feels the same, so I yawn again and so on. It's very annoying, and it's very hard to get under control once that process starts.
I do agree that our natural breathing tends to be a little off after PE. My doctor had talked to me also about just taking some time every day to breathe deeply and make sure to fill my lungs all the way up to kind of retrain myself in how to breathe properly. It's like taking that little bit of time to consciously think about how I was breathing was enough to prompt my body to start breathing more than tiny, shallow breaths when I wasn't consciously thinking about it. I don't know that it particularly, for me, helped with the yawning issue, because as I said, I sometimes still get that, but it has improved over time.
Are you guys able to take full breaths and how long did it take you post PE?
On another note is anyone having these hypnoic jerks when you are falling asleep? That happens to me since this maybe twice a week.
Tweezy,
I'm 4 months out from my PE now, and honestly, I'm struggling with a lot of symptoms daily still, but that doesn't seem to be the norm from what I can tell, so hopefully, you will be feeling a lot better quickly.
I mainly wanted to respond to your question about the hypnic jerks.
I started up with bad myoclonic jerks the night my PE hit. Mine happen every day, and usually start up in the state where I'm trying to go to sleep or just waking up. So, I think these are sometimes called hypnic jerks too. Although mine, I am definitely not asleep when they happen, I'm just very relaxed.
When they start, they can hit anywhere in my body...my legs, hips, arms, shoulders, neck, and sometimes intense ones that jerk together my whole body at once. And I also get these weird eye flashes and zaps too.
I tried to count them one night, and gave up after I got to 20 in just 30 minutes time. :(
So, I'm seeing a neurologist now too, and they have tried me on anti-seizure meds (keppra). However, I still get them daily, they just don't seem to be as bad.
I have found there are certain things that make them worse though, like being overly tired or too much caffeine or anxiety.
I also get tremors now too (mainly in my hands). So, I'm sure I've got tons of neuro testing on the way soon, but I don't know that any of this is typical for PE.
Mainly, what I've been told is that it really is only expected if you went into cardiac arrest, but I didn't. I briefly stopped breathing when the PE hit, but I was conscious through it.
So, I don't know!!
If the jerks are very bothersome to you, speak with your doc and they might can give you some meds to help with your sleeping or to tone down the jerks.
Here's some information about myoclonic jerks:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/myoclonus/basics/symptoms/con-20027364
GOOD LUCK!!
Thanks for your comment! Mine aren't too bad and only happen maybe 2-3 times before I actually fall asleep and certainly not every night.
I guess over the past 4 weeks I learned when they are happening I'm about to fall asleep. They are just so weird since I've never experienced that sensation before.
I recently have been diagnosed with PE a few days ago but I have noticed I am yawning a lot, so I looked it up on-line and had seen what you had wrote and I seen this was nearly 6 years ago. I was just wondering has the yawning stopped? and if so how long did it take to stop?
Many thanks Dean80