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.
So I've had some leg pain that has lasted about a week. I went to the ER and they did an ultrasound and they said they didn't see any clots and I had "really good blood flow". Then a few days later I noticed that the varicose veins on the side of my leg had started to bulge more. This really concerned me that it could be a clot so I went back to the ER (yes I went back). They said it was just varicose veins and they didn't look unusual. The PA checked the pulse in my feet and examined the veins. She said since I'm still on Eliquis the chance of it being a clot is very minimal and even if it was they wouldn't change the treatment plan. She said on the off chance it is a clot it would be in a superficial vein.
I've seen where people on here had ultrasounds of their legs when they suspected a clot and nothing was found yet they ended up with a PE shortly thereafter. I'm concerned because I did go off the Eliquis for 24 hours to have the filter retrieval procedure. What if I clotted when I was off the Eliquis? If it's a superficial clot isn't that a sign that the Eliquis isn't working well enough? Maybe Eliquis is just not working for me anymore for whatever reason or isn't putting me in a therapeutic enough range for my body.
I've seen where people on here had ultrasounds of their legs when they suspected a clot and nothing was found yet they ended up with a PE shortly thereafter. I'm concerned because I did go off the Eliquis for 24 hours to have the filter retrieval procedure. What if I clotted when I was off the Eliquis? If it's a superficial clot isn't that a sign that the Eliquis isn't working well enough? Maybe Eliquis is just not working for me anymore for whatever reason or isn't putting me in a therapeutic enough range for my body.
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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.
I think if you have concerns with whether your meds are still working, see your doc, not the PA, just for piece of mind, but I suspect your meds are working fine.
Second, varicose veins do hurt and bulge and it really has nothing to do with clotting.
Third, superficial clots are almost always a GOOD thing. Doctors almost never worry about superficial clots because they mean that your body is working correctly. Every scab you've ever had, every bruise that didn't keep growing, every papercut that stopped bleeding... those were ALL superficial clots. Even when you're on anticoagulants, you want to have superficial clots. If you nick yourself with a knife, you want it to stop bleeding and that will require a superficial clot. With anticoagulants, superficial clots will still form, but they take a little bit longer. The vast majority of the time, superficial clots are your friend.
Again, most of this sounds like anxiety talking. I hope you're addressing that head on. Hang in there! You're OK.