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.
Hello all. I'm new here. I had a DVT 2 years ago and just got home from the hospital yesterday after a massive PE. In addition to that I'm struggling with stress (not just a little bit, I got physically ill)
I need help... in Denmark there is no aftercare and you get no info, so I have a lot if questions but no answers. Hope you can help.
How long did it take you to be able to work a full day (I work as a social worker) ?
Have any of you found exercise to be helpful?
How long did it take for your PE to actually dissolve?
How do you deal with the depression? The thought that this might take years to go away and to feel normal again. The thought that you're too young for this and what if I loose my job over this and... well you know....
Thank you all very much.
Janie
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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.
Depending on the extent and affect of the clots, the job, and the person, some people are back to work within a week or two and some take longer. I had a desk job so I went back to work full time maybe two weeks after I was home from the hospital. I won’t lie. It was hard and I was exhausted every day for probably 3-4 weeks after returning. So my opinion is if you wait to go back to work until you feel a 100% back to normal, you will be waiting a long time. I didn’t really start feeling pretty good decent until 3 months after my diagnosis. By 6th months I felt pretty normal. For some people it’s less time and for some it’s longer.
Psychologically one of the best things I did for myself was to seek counseling for the anxiety and stress. That really help me. The other thing that helped me psychologically and emotionally was distracting myself. I made a point of getting together with friends and family and trying to make sure I wasn’t just talking about the clot, or about me. It’s easy to slip into that because what we went through was so frightening and shocking. Going back to work really lifted my spirits, because it got me out of my head and it made me feel productive.
Oh and as far as exercise, the doctor who treated me in the hospital told me I should exercise but to start very slow and simple, so just walking or something like that. Nothing crazy.
You may want to schedule an appointment with your general doctor to touch base with him/her, let them know your concerns and get some support.
And like rmb said distracting yourself. Knowing I was going to spend a lot of time at home, I tried to make it as cool and awesome as possible.
I got Netflix, bought some video games to keep me busy, started playing the guitar again, bought a kitchenaid to make myself some nice treats every now and then, started writing stories. And started watching all the tv shows I loved from childhood.
My home was literally a paradise for any kids growing up. Obviously that's what I liked. You find what you enjoy to keep yourself busy.
As for working out, I was too tired to do anything till 4 months in. Walking to the shopping center which is 200m away was exhausting.
And on a side note, stay well hydrated even if you don't workout. That costed me a trip to ER once.
Do everything to keep yourself happy and try not to overthink.