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.
Hi all,
I figured I'd just do a post to let all of my friends know how my appointments went this week. First I want to talk everyone who was there for me through my stress and anxiety this week, as there was a lot of it...even if it was mostly made up by my friend anxiety!
Monday I went to my Hematologist for a INR check, and a follow up with the doctor. After being on coumadin for 6 months on the same dose and always withen 2.1-3.0...I finally took a dive to 1.5! I was puzzled at first...
Then I realized I forgot my dose on sat! DUH... so I saw the dr. and he didnt change my dose, he said that since my clot was gone that 1.5 wasnt too low, and he wasnt concerned he told me to continue with my normal dose! ( That worried me for a moment! But I do trust him.) He asked how I was doing, listened to my lungs and said I was dong great, which was nice to hear considering every other visit to him has been me making emergancy appointments thinking im dying lol. I guess things are really starting to change!
I also went to a dermatologist bc of my anxiety driven fear that I all of the sudden had skin cancer... (I know its ok for you to laugh at me.) Of course all was well and I'm happy I went, after I told her my story she actually told me they prescribe Yaz b.c. for acne!!!!! and I was horrified... seemed to have taken me seriously and said that she does warn her patients of the potential side effects and has them fill out a questionare regarding family history! I guess I'm ok with people taking it if they know what could happen...as I was never given this information! I know that if my Dr. would have informed me of the potential side effects of Yaz I would have opted to take my crappy periods anyday!
Tuesday: I went to therapy with my girlfriend, things were a little heated but I know that couple counceling isnt cake... lol so my therapist recommended a few more couple sessions to try to work things out, we are confident it will help us understand eachother better!
Thursday: ( today) I had an appointment with the pulmonologist that I have been fearing for days! I went through hell in back to get all of my ct scans on film, cd - rom, reports...bc I just wanted to get it all over with. Getting the records was one of the most stressful events of the week, that took up tons of time and had me running back and forth to the hospital UGH. So turns out it wasnt so bad! He read all of my reports and looked at my ct scans... of course he said I was a lucky girl, but that generally healthy people are able to fight off clots very well, so he wasnt surprised. He spoke of P.E.s like they were a minor occurence, he said they they happen often, and they are not really as deadly as they are portrayed...serious as they may be, he insisted they were only deadly if your heart and lungs are seriously impared or you do not seek medical treatment. I thankfully do not have any lung damage or scarring! No infractions! He didnt feel i needed any lung funtion tests, he did walk me around the office with a oxygen monitor on to see if it dropped, altough he said he was only doing it to make me feel better, lol. My oxygen never dropped below 99% which is great!
He also told me since it had been 6 months he recommended I come off the coumadin but I told him I was going to stick to what my hematologist said, which is 1 year... lol im just not ready!
Well thats about it, I will try to reflect back to this week in the future, when I am scared about appointments bc I swore I would find out something horrible, when the pulmonologist really didnt understand why I was seeing him, he said I was in perfect health again, almost as if the pe didn happen at all! He said any aches I may feel are muscular and will continue to disapate as I become more active. I am definately getting back on my treadmill this appointment has given me the confedence to know "hey your lungs and heart are not going to explode or crap out on you if you exercise" Now I just need to let the fact that I am healthy sink in..after so many months of thinking "Im soo ill" I have to now face that I actually am healthy...and normal...what a victory and epiphany this is for me...Ive been living my life like im made of glass, and dying...I am a healthy 21 year old women and the only precautions i must take now are the ones having to do with coumadin for another 6 months!
I must add, I had two rasberry margaritas tonight as celebration! YAY! I wasnt too scared since my INR was 1.5...
Thank you all again for being here for me!
I hope that anyone who is feeling hopeless, or anxiety ridden when thinking of upcoming appointments reads this and realizes that things do get better...I swore 3 months ago my life was over and its not, its just starting over again...I will be a new me!
xoxo
Ashley
p.s. congradulations on reading this novel.
I figured I'd just do a post to let all of my friends know how my appointments went this week. First I want to talk everyone who was there for me through my stress and anxiety this week, as there was a lot of it...even if it was mostly made up by my friend anxiety!
Monday I went to my Hematologist for a INR check, and a follow up with the doctor. After being on coumadin for 6 months on the same dose and always withen 2.1-3.0...I finally took a dive to 1.5! I was puzzled at first...
Then I realized I forgot my dose on sat! DUH... so I saw the dr. and he didnt change my dose, he said that since my clot was gone that 1.5 wasnt too low, and he wasnt concerned he told me to continue with my normal dose! ( That worried me for a moment! But I do trust him.) He asked how I was doing, listened to my lungs and said I was dong great, which was nice to hear considering every other visit to him has been me making emergancy appointments thinking im dying lol. I guess things are really starting to change!
I also went to a dermatologist bc of my anxiety driven fear that I all of the sudden had skin cancer... (I know its ok for you to laugh at me.) Of course all was well and I'm happy I went, after I told her my story she actually told me they prescribe Yaz b.c. for acne!!!!! and I was horrified... seemed to have taken me seriously and said that she does warn her patients of the potential side effects and has them fill out a questionare regarding family history! I guess I'm ok with people taking it if they know what could happen...as I was never given this information! I know that if my Dr. would have informed me of the potential side effects of Yaz I would have opted to take my crappy periods anyday!
Tuesday: I went to therapy with my girlfriend, things were a little heated but I know that couple counceling isnt cake... lol so my therapist recommended a few more couple sessions to try to work things out, we are confident it will help us understand eachother better!
Thursday: ( today) I had an appointment with the pulmonologist that I have been fearing for days! I went through hell in back to get all of my ct scans on film, cd - rom, reports...bc I just wanted to get it all over with. Getting the records was one of the most stressful events of the week, that took up tons of time and had me running back and forth to the hospital UGH. So turns out it wasnt so bad! He read all of my reports and looked at my ct scans... of course he said I was a lucky girl, but that generally healthy people are able to fight off clots very well, so he wasnt surprised. He spoke of P.E.s like they were a minor occurence, he said they they happen often, and they are not really as deadly as they are portrayed...serious as they may be, he insisted they were only deadly if your heart and lungs are seriously impared or you do not seek medical treatment. I thankfully do not have any lung damage or scarring! No infractions! He didnt feel i needed any lung funtion tests, he did walk me around the office with a oxygen monitor on to see if it dropped, altough he said he was only doing it to make me feel better, lol. My oxygen never dropped below 99% which is great!
He also told me since it had been 6 months he recommended I come off the coumadin but I told him I was going to stick to what my hematologist said, which is 1 year... lol im just not ready!
Well thats about it, I will try to reflect back to this week in the future, when I am scared about appointments bc I swore I would find out something horrible, when the pulmonologist really didnt understand why I was seeing him, he said I was in perfect health again, almost as if the pe didn happen at all! He said any aches I may feel are muscular and will continue to disapate as I become more active. I am definately getting back on my treadmill this appointment has given me the confedence to know "hey your lungs and heart are not going to explode or crap out on you if you exercise" Now I just need to let the fact that I am healthy sink in..after so many months of thinking "Im soo ill" I have to now face that I actually am healthy...and normal...what a victory and epiphany this is for me...Ive been living my life like im made of glass, and dying...I am a healthy 21 year old women and the only precautions i must take now are the ones having to do with coumadin for another 6 months!
I must add, I had two rasberry margaritas tonight as celebration! YAY! I wasnt too scared since my INR was 1.5...
Thank you all again for being here for me!
I hope that anyone who is feeling hopeless, or anxiety ridden when thinking of upcoming appointments reads this and realizes that things do get better...I swore 3 months ago my life was over and its not, its just starting over again...I will be a new me!
xoxo
Ashley
p.s. congradulations on reading this novel.
You have made MY weekend - I am more happy about your news than mine -lol.
First of all (altho i know its not to be
recommended), but skipping your dose is such
a total opposite thing that you would have
done even a month back - it really shows
that your mind is not totally obsessed by
the Warfarin and PE - it's healing just
like your body.
Your pulmonolist (sorry for spelling) sounds
great and her words have been very comforting to me. I agree with Khurney (she is psychology whizkid in my eyes - big whoop
to her here) that it was probably the right
time for you to hear that good news and logical perspective - after all she must treat a lot of people who have has PEs. If she had said it any earlier then it probably
would have felt patronising. I now recall
my heamotoligist saying that the place where I go for my results etc. is a young dept,
she meant they had a lot of young people atending for app (I think that's what she meant)
Anyway, HURRRRRAAAAAAYYYYYYY, I am glad you had some drinks to celebrate - it's
wonderful news and you deserve to be happy because you've been such a crutch for all
of us on here - you have mirrored my
paranoia almost perfectly and for you to
have such positive news shows that things
do get better for all of us - in fact, now
I am really happy about my news too.
WOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO
Thanks so much for sharing.