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 am sitting here waiting to have a CT in a few hours to check for another possible PE. It all started Tuesday with a pretty severe pain on my right side that went from back to arm to chest. It was pretty bad pain that lasted a good 15 minutes. Any movement made it worst, including breathing. I am 4 years out from multiple PE's. My INR is theraputic and ranges 2.7 - 2.8 and has for about 9 months now (since changing to the clinic and leaving former primary care doctor). I thought I might have moved the wrong way or something so I went for the recliner and heat. The pain has been there since but has changed and moved to the middle of my chest/back with shortness of breath and a general heaviness in my chest. So I decided it was time to see the doctor and she did and EKG, sent me for labs and gave me forms for a CT. Making the CT appointment got complicated this time because I am on asthma meds - but I have always been on asthma meds. So they want to premedicate with prednisone and benadryl. Never heard of this before. Thing is the prednisone will react with my warfarin. So they changed their mind on this but the CT needs to be done in the out patient location of the hospital. Now my doctor told me if things get worse don't wait go to the ER. So of course I am now stressed waiting and getting a little nervous. I keep telling myself every thing is fine. PE don't typically happen on warfarin, right? I am thinking the ER is just easier in the future.
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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.
Here's why I'm asking what time your CT is scheduled. If you're really concerned about getting worse, head to your appt early. That way, if things do get worse, you're already at the hospital. I mean, you may end up sitting around but it may give you peace of mind. I do think if your doc suspected you had a PE, she would have told you to go to the ER right away vs scheduling it.
Going to the ER is always a weird call and it's hard to know what to do. You'll be ok.