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.
As we all know, the whole experience is traumatic and life-changing. Mine was unprovoked (idiopathic?) and this kind of PE has the tendency to create the MOST apprehension. I thought the worst: cancer, etc. They just couldn't find the cause and this freaked me out. Well, after going through it I can offer this advice to anyone who has recently been diagnosed with PE:
1) you WILL get better. It does take time- there was a steady level of improvement for me each month. I'm a year out and feeling pretty much normal. Still have minor shortness of breath at certain times but am feeling good.
2) Please know that you are not alone. This site is a terrific resource and a great way to gain perspective about the situation and there are great people with good advice (namely rmb, and Toss, among others,etc: they really are so vigilant about offering advice- Kudos to them!) Also, don't be afraid to ask doctors all questions.
3) Make sure to walk as soon as possible (30-45 minutes) and to be as active as you feel that you can- safely.
4) Eat a super healthy diet. You can even do research on foods that help to break up clots (pineapple, etc.) Smoothies can pack in a lot of healthy foods. Be careful if on coumadin, though.
5) Get therapy (if needed), pamper yourself, and try to keep telling yourself that you WILL get through it.
Of course I'd never choose to have something like this happen to me (or anyone else) but I certainly enjoy life and am MUCH more appreciative of every day.
Best to all!
1) you WILL get better. It does take time- there was a steady level of improvement for me each month. I'm a year out and feeling pretty much normal. Still have minor shortness of breath at certain times but am feeling good.
2) Please know that you are not alone. This site is a terrific resource and a great way to gain perspective about the situation and there are great people with good advice (namely rmb, and Toss, among others,etc: they really are so vigilant about offering advice- Kudos to them!) Also, don't be afraid to ask doctors all questions.
3) Make sure to walk as soon as possible (30-45 minutes) and to be as active as you feel that you can- safely.
4) Eat a super healthy diet. You can even do research on foods that help to break up clots (pineapple, etc.) Smoothies can pack in a lot of healthy foods. Be careful if on coumadin, though.
5) Get therapy (if needed), pamper yourself, and try to keep telling yourself that you WILL get through it.
Of course I'd never choose to have something like this happen to me (or anyone else) but I certainly enjoy life and am MUCH more appreciative of every day.
Best to all!
rmb
Glad you are doing so well! Love it when people are so encouraging!
TossNTurn
This is a great post! Super succinct and yet hits all the major points. I'm glad to hear how you're doing!
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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.