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.
Hello everyone, I'm new to this website but I'm glad I joined reading everyone experiences having a PE. Here is my story: I was diagnosed with PE on June 2, 2013 a week prior to that I was already having symptoms Sob , Chest pressure , and Dizziness. I thought these symptoms were due from me not taking my iron pills sense I am anemic. When I got off of work that Friday I still had these same symptoms and feeling very tired. So I said if I didn't feel better Sunday morning I would go to the ER to be seen. Sunday morning I still felt the same but having more pain in my chest. At 6:00am I drove myself the ER checked in they did a EKG which came out normal, my blood pressure , heart rate, oxygen was 100% everything was normal. The doctor came in I explained everything to him then he asked me was I taking in medications. I said yes just my iron pill and my BIRTH CONTROL PILLS called NOR QD .35mg he said I will have lab draw your blood and send you over for a chest x-ray. An hour later he came back to my room and said all my lab results were normal except for one which says borderline. He said I'm going to send you over for a CT-SCAN contrast. It was now 11:00am I was feeling a little better and of course I was ready to go home all my vitals were still normal at this point. So after I came back from getting my CT-SCAN 45mins later the ER doctor came in and said you have to blood clots on your lungs one is a size of a pea & the other size of a marble. At that point my heart monitor started to go off my blood pressure started to go up I was very scared. So the ER doctor said for me to stop taking the birth control pills IMMEDIATELY. So my mom and aunt ask if I was going to be admitted he said no because my vitals , oxygen were all normal . 10mins later the nurse came in and gave me a shot of LOVENOX and I took 4 pills of warfin right away!!!! I then had to watch a long video on how to take the shots twice a day. Before I was released the ER doctor came in and said the EKG clinic will call me for a 24hour heart monitor for me to wear and the anticoagulant clinic will also call me that week. I was discharged around 1 or 2:00 pm that day and sent home.
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Nationalday.com proclaims September 28th as Self Aware Day. I took a few snaps of various core values lists and tried to pick my top five core values (kinda hard to only pick 5). But here are my top picks. Feel free to list a few of yours too:GodLovePeaceStability Compassion
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Now that I am not talking to my whatever best friend, I realized that her life is full of drama. I had grown tired of hearing her stories about her boyfriend many months ago. She basically had been monopolizing conversations for that long too. She pretty much stopped asking me questions about me. I passed her in front of her classroom the other day and didn't even look at her. I am...
I went to the ER on May 22,2013 and was admitted for 6 days with clots in both lungs. They also a blood clot in my left leg a day later.
How are you dealing with all of this? At least with the time in the hospital I had a chance to adjust and accept things, well kind of I should say.
How are you doing almost a month later with things? I know I have my good days and bad days at 6 weeks out.
There are a lot of good people here who are a lot further down the road to help answer questions,etc. Hope things keep improving for you!
I started having panic/anxiety attacks as well which seems to be fairly common. I talked to my doctor and he prescribed me something to take which has helped a whole lot!
Open MRI's are still semi enclosed to a point...just the other end is opened from the ones that I have been in for mine. Just to give you the heads up. Some people need to take a Valium or something before they even go into one of those.. If you do, take it and don't worry about it.
I still have mild chest pains off and on at 6 weeks out. It sounds like that is fairly common to a point for us newbies. Over doing things will also set off mild chest pains.
I was given the Lovenox shot in the hospital the 6 days I was there for a total of 22 shots. My poor stomach is just now starting to look normal and not bruised once more. I hate those shots!
I had to wear a heart monitor the whole time I was int he hospital as well. That was a pain as the monitor didn't always work right and the nurses were always having to come in and check to see what was wrong.
My main complaint is that I feel so tired most of the time. Of course, I am trying to raise an active 5 yr old as well as keep the house running. I am off work until August since I work for the school so that is a mixed blessing. I try to take naps in the afternoon with the 5 year old but we don't always get one in. On those days, my butt is usually really dragging my evening.
Let me know how your MRI goes and what you find out. Why are they doing an MRI? They just did a CT scan and chest xray on me at the hospital. Hope things turn out well tho!
I'm 4 1/2 months out, and can tell you things do get better. I didn't really have what I could call a good day until over 2 months out. Between 2 and 2 1/2 months out I started to fell more like a person and less like a patient. My energy started returning (slowly, and its still not where it was, but so much better now than just after the PE).
Everyone recovers at their own pace, the one common element seems to be that recovery takes longer than anyone expects it to or wants it to. Try to be patient with your body as it heals. You went thru physical and emotional trauma, and that takes a toll.
Unfortunately, anxiety is a common factor for many of us during recovery. There are posts on here that address anxiety and coping strategies people have used. Some people have had good results with counseling, some have gotten good results from medication, some have developed other ways of coping and done very well. Just knowing I wasn't the only one going thru it helped me a great deal. As my health has improved my anxiety has lessened.
Good luck, hang in there, and ask questions when you have them. Chances are good someone has dealt with your same issues before.
The anxiety can really be over whelming. I know for me, I started having anxiety attacks right about a month after diagnosis. It does get better, but I ended up seeing a therapist to help me through it. I found it really beneficial. So just don't assume you have to tolerate that. There are options if needed, therapy, meditation, medication etc.
I am 22 , eat well don't drink or smoke or have any of the risk factors. I was told I had a small clot under my arm and put on a newer form of warfin. I feel really confused, I WASN'T given much information on what to do at home - rest wise, diet or anthing. Still getting chest pains and out of breath at times been out for about 3 days. Really scared, don't know what to do...
I talked to my doctor about the panic/anxiety attacks. He put me on Prozac which has really helped me a lot! I mean I was in tears almost daily over things, stressing over different things, I do have some Xanax if a panic attack still set in on top of things. I have had to take it once or twice only though since starting the Prozac. I am hoping by the time I come off the Warfarin, I can also work on coming off these medicines as well.
I also have a good friend that I talk to off and on about things. That helps me out as well. I like the idea of RMB of the distractions. Of course, I have a 5 year old granddaughter I am helping raise plus right now my son & his almost 3 month old daughter are staying with us. So I have a lot of distractions which are good some days, bad on others. Just keeping busy with normal life for the most part is a big plus for me!
Hope you get good news on the MRI! Hang in there with everything.
Yeah, I found that the more time on my hands or the more time I spent in my head, the worse the anxiety. That's why I tried to really get back to some normalcy soon after diagnosis. Still sometimes the anxiety or panic would come out of nowhere, no matter how distracted I was but you know, you're kind of on high alert even when you feel like your not. That's how those of us prone to anxiety roll.
I used a variety of tactics to help with my anxiety. I am blessed with a great support network of family and friends, and was able to talk thru a lot of my issues with them. I tried to identify the triggers for my anxieties, and worked out a plan to cope with different triggers. Like when an odd pain would start the anxiety, I would jot down what I felt, when it started, and give it a pain rating on a scale of 1 to 10. Then I would find something to distract myself--read a book, watch a movie, talk with a friend, brush the cat, whatever would get my mind off the pain. Then later (I tried for an hour most times, but it varied) I would re-evaluate the pain. Many times it would be gone or at least diminished to the point of no longer being a major source of panic. Some people find journaling helpful in dealing with anxiety.
Anxiety is a tough obstacle to deal with in the road to recovery, but it can be dealt with. I wish you luck in finding the right combination of techniques that work for you.
Well I finally got the results of my MRI and it was normal!!! Thank God!! I was really stressing out. This week I went to my first Anxiety class which is a huge help and makes a big difference. I'm still having some headaches almost like I can't think straight some days. And still having some chest tightness do you all think it's because of Anxiety or my body still in healing process??
Concerning chest pains I would say you are definitely still healing. I had chest pains at least for the first four months coming and going (now I am 6 months post large bi-lateral PE). But sure, anxiety also causes these feelings, and it might be different to tell what is what. It sounds good with anxiety class, I will call my dr tomorrow and ask for this, my anxiety has become worse during the last two months and I find it difficult to cope with!