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.

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Has anyone heard of this?

MSM24
MSM24
I have been on anticoagulants for 6 months. Warfarin for a month and then Lovenox for 5 months. They did a repeat CT scan in December which was at 4 months. Today I went to see my cardiologist and he asked how much longer I was on the anticoagulants and I said they are going to check the clot in may and if it is gone then I get off of the anticoagulants. My cardiologist said that sometimes the clot NEVER goes away and that I should just stay on the Lovenox for one more month to make 6 months on Lovenox, Then I can get off of it. He says there isnt any since in me staying on Lovenox until it is gone since it may never go away. This is scary to me. If it doesnt go away how do I keep from it getting larger? I am worried. Does this mean I wont get 100% lung function back? I dont know who to trust. The other doctor who says I need to stay on it until it is gone is a GP. I am still having chest pain which concerns me.

Has anyone heard of this? Or has anyone gotten off of anticoagulants when there blood clot was still present?

Melissa
deleted_user
deleted_user
I have heard of "chronic PE". If the PE doesn't get reabsorbed, and causes heart and lung problems that affect the persons quality of life, there is an open heart type surgery they can do to try and remove the clot. This is extreme and is usually only used in the worst cases. I would wait to see what your next CT shows. I still have shortness of breath, chest pain, and low activity tolerance after 5 months. I get the same thing as far as differing opinions from different doctors taking care of me. Who are we supposed to trust? My undestanding of anticoagulants is that they prevent you from getting more clots, not neccessarily stop old ones from getting bigger. I am not sure how that works, just what I was told.
MSM24
MSM24
Its been 6 months and I feel about the same as you. I don't think mine is considered that dangerous. Now it is only blocking off the blood flow of 1/3 of my right lung. I dont want surgery.
deleted_user
deleted_user
Melissa, I just saw my pulminologist yesterday. My last CT scan in Dec. showed mine is still resolving. It has been 9 months. I am on Coumadin and because of other clotting tests that came back positive I will be on Coumadin for the rest of my life.

Sure does seems to take a long time to resolve! The damage caused by mine (an infarct) my doc says the scarring will shrink as time goes by which means breathing will get better. Now that was good news.

Nan