Nope, and I definately won't be watching it. An aquaintance of mine from college died of a PE about a month after I had mine... that was enough to make things much worse for me. I can't even handle watching the bc commercials that talk about the risk of clots or the yaz lawsuit adds. Obviously I still have some work to do with my emotional response to all of this!

Nope, and I definately won't be watching it. An aquaintance of mine from college died of a PE about a month after I had mine... that was enough to make things much worse for me. I can't even handle watching the bc commercials that talk about the risk of clots or the yaz lawsuit adds. Obviously I still have some work to do with my emotional response to all of this!

Nope, and I definately won't be watching it. An aquaintance of mine from college died of a PE about a month after I had mine... that was enough to make things much worse for me. I can't even handle watching the bc commercials that talk about the risk of clots or the yaz lawsuit adds. Obviously I still have some work to do with my emotional response to all of this!

I did. By mistake. I happened to turn it on right before the woman passed away.

I did. By mistake. I happened to turn it on right before the woman passed away.

Thankfully I did not see this. When I had my PE we were actually studying the effects and pathology of them in one of my classes. After I got out of the hospital and was trying to catch up on my work I had a panic attack every time I read the statistics about them. 2 weeks ago I had to go through a class to get my CPR recertification and when we were talking about clots during the class I could feel a panic attack coming again. I got flushed and my heart was beating so hard I could hear it up in my ears. I had to take a clonazepam just to make it through the rest of the class. I'm taking pathophysiology this quarter and the unit discussing heart and lung conditions made me nervous and I had a hard time focusing. I wish I wasn't so affected by it still, but I am.

****I had a panic attack every time I read the statistics about them.****

My class in pathology (dental hygiene) produced a wave of 'oral cancer' in almost everyone in the class! Fortunately none of us had it. (grin)

Yep, funny thing is you go along living your life not really giving it too much thought and the bam out of the blue something brings all back in a flood doesn't it?

I guess the part that I struggle with the most is that at the time I didn't think I was that sick and that I would be fine. Now I know better, that I am very lucky; especially when the doctors tell me that they give tPA as a "last ditch" effort to prevent death - yeah that kinds punches ya in the gut!

I really want to know exactly what the doctors told my family but I can't bring myself to ask because I know they were traumatized as well, so I just try not to talk about any of it and pretend that all is fine, which it is for the most part. But every once in awhile it all comes flooding back!

Cave76 - I get it. I used to work in neurology before I had kids and I was convinced that there were no "normal" babies in the world LOL, because you only see those with problems!

It is funny that now that I have been through this everywhere I turn there is something about PEs. A friend told me recently that her husband's first wife died from one. The PA-C that was taking care of me in the hospital her mother died from one 6 months before I had mine. You read about athletes and celebs having them. The fact that I work with medical records probably doesn't help either LOL.

I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it seems to me more common that I realized yet the symptoms are attributed to other ailments first. That and people think it is not a big deal because "Hey you survived" - UGH! Ok I'm done LOL.

Happy thoughts to all my fellow survivors - we are stronger than this ailment! Love "chatting" with you all :D

Jill----you wrote (and many others have also):
***I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that it seems to me more common that I realized yet the symptoms are attributed to other ailments first***

One of the reasons is because CDC, in their ultimate wisdom, hasn't instigated a surveillance program yet. (I'm sure they're 'working on it')

Compare what can be found at the CDC site(s) about asthma with what can be found out on VTE.

Asthma (because there's been surveillance about it for a long time)

"Asthma Surveillance Data
Asthma surveillance data includes collection of asthma data at both the national and the state level. National data is available on asthma prevalence, activity limitation, days of work or school lost, rescue and control medication use, asthma self-management education, physician visits, emergency department visits, hospitalizations due to asthma, and deaths due to asthma from National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)"
http://www.cdc.gov/asthma/asthmadata.htm

VTE, by comparison, only merits this 'suggestion'.

"Abstract
Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), known collectively as venous thromboembolism (VTE), affect an estimated 900,000 people in the U.S. each year, resulting in several hundred thousand hospitalizations and about 300,000 deaths. Despite this substantial public health burden, no systematic collection of VTE-related morbidity and mortality data exists in the U.S. The available information about disease prevalence and incidence consists of estimates based mainly on population-based epidemiologic studies and analysis of hospital discharge or health insurance claims databases. The limited scope of the available data has raised the question of whether a systematic surveillance system for VTE should be established."

http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(10)00057-7/abstract

So, until the CDC gets that 'systematic surveillance system' in place--- we'll suck hind tit, to use an old phrase from my farmer-parents background.

Yes I saw it. I might have missed the start of the segment but I saw where the doctors brought in the tpa. But by then the heart had stopped pumping. They sat females express and feel the sadness . Men do also, but perhaps as a defensive mechanism we start thinking of how to solve the problem. In my overactive mind I of course felt sad but I was thinking is there a heart lung machine that could be used till the clots were removed? Is there a procedure to snake a tube into the lungs to release tpa right on the clot. If in this case the clot was most likely large and in a large vein. Or could the tube have a screw end on it to drill into the clot like a cork screw and pull it out? I read where all these are feasible or are being done aready.

**** Or could the tube have a screw end on it to drill into the clot like a cork screw and pull it out? ****

YEEOUCH!!!!