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.
For the past few weeks I've been experiencing a lot of weird chest pains. I dealt with it for a while by simply brushing it off as residual pain from my PE. But last Monday I had a really sharp pain in the center of my chest and on the right side of my lung. I panicked and went to the emergency room. They performed a Doppler scan on my old DVT leg and a CT scan on my lungs. It turns out that it isn't a new clot. All of this has got me worried because when I had the first clot I didn't have any chest pain. My first clot also got bigger because I ignored it and waited months before I went to the hospital. So if this new pain is not linked to PE's, how am I supposed to tell when something is wrong in the future. I'm typing this today because last night I woke up several times with sharp pains in my left lung. I mean pain that scared the crap out of me. But I just went to the emergency room not even 8 days ago. I trust the doctors that there are no new clots. They also said that my heart sounded normal. What could this new pain be? It is sharp pain that comes and goes and it really makes me feel as if I'm having another PE. I already feel like a hypochondriac for going to the hospital when there really wasn't anything wrong with me. The doctor said I made the right call. He said that if he was in my shoes he would have gone to the emergency room as well. But how do you manage the unknown without being labeled the boy who cried wolf? They sprung into action in the emergency room. They had me scanned and diagnosed with an all clear within 2 hours time. Perhaps I need to realize that I'm going to have weird chest pains for quite some time to come.
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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.
Sometimes GI problems can cause upper chest pain, even stabbing pain, like gas, gastritis, GERD, Pancreatitis.
Also Costochondritis can be really painful. And if you're stressed or agitated at all, that can cause chest pain. One of the main symptoms of having anxiety for me was severe chest pain.
I'm just shooting stuff out there. I know you are in between insurance right now, but it may be beneficial to obtain a primary care doc and make an appt. Would likely be cheaper than several ER visits and it would help to a doc to narrow down what it may be the cause.
I made 3 or 4 trips to the ER that first year after my PE diagnosis because of chest pain. There's no shame in that. I mean, rather it be nothing than be something and I ignored it.
For me, after a while, I just started to put faith in my INR and my vena cava filter when I wasn't sure whether to go to the ER. If my INR was good, I just assumed I likely wasn't clotting. And if I was, I just thought, well hopefully the filter will catch them. While I realize therapeutic INRs and vena cava filters aren't foolproof, awareness of them is something that helps me manage the emotions and uncertainty that's for sure.
Still, chest pains aren't something to mess around with either. I don't blame you for going to the ER. And yeah, it does give you peace of mind when you are told no PEs present. Sometimes that alone is worth it.