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.

1,102 Members
7,473 Posts
0 Online
Lungs & Respiration
/ Pulmonary Embolism Support Group

Multiple PE, possible DVT

PE.KS
PE.KS

I am 49, and recently admitted to ICU after ER found multiple blood clots in both my lungs.  They didn't even scan my leg as they assumed it was coming from my leg that was cramping.  I've been on Xarelto for the 1st 3 weeks, 15mgs 2x a day.  I am now on the Xarleto 20mg once a day for about 2 weeks.  I also was prescribed busprione 5 mg 2x a day because the Xarelto was causing me to feel very anxious.


I was referred to the hematolgist and go back in 3 weeks for the results of the gallons of blood they drew looking for the provoked/unprovoked cause of my clots.


I have severe upper back pain and I've noticed my hands and feet are tingly and numb at times.  Does anyone else have this symptom? I'm not sure if it's from the blood clots, the meds or something else. Other than the leg pain minimizing and the shortness of breath a little better, physically I feel worse than when this all started.

notsopatient
notsopatient
Yep it's pretty tough. One tip, it might be the brush with mortality causing the anxiety rather than the xarelto - a lot of people find the emotional aspects tougher than the physical ones. If you go back through old posts here you'll find some tips for dealing with that. That said if you do believe it's the medication consider switching to a different one, quite a few people say that they can't tolerate the side effects of the newer medications.

I found it hard because the symptoms during recovery were quite similar to the symptoms during the hospital phase. They will get better over time, though not as quickly as I'd like (hence my user name...). You probably feel like you've been hit by a truck - you've had the lung equivalent of a heart attack and it takes a while to heal.