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.

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Oxygen at home

imaprincess2
imaprincess2
Anyone else on oxygen at home?
I had my PE June 1st and was released on June 5th.
I wasn't using it cuz I thought I was tougher than I thought and didn't need it.
My Primary said I need to use it at night for sure because it is theraputic and will help me feel less fatigued all the time.
I get so tired doig the simplest of things. It is so frustrating. I hate not being able to do all the stuff I did before.
TossNTurn
TossNTurn
You might run some searches through old posts to see if you can find other info on people with oxygen at home.

If you've got it, I think I'd use it! I mean, most of us just suffer through the extreme exhaustion that comes with PEs. If the oxygen will help lesson it, why not?

In my experience, pushing yourself too hard can cause symptoms to flare up or re-occur (even if they've been gone for a while). Now is definitely the time to take it easy, indulge in the oxygen to help with healing, and tackle a few things on your to-do list that don't require being very active (e.g., calling friends and family you've lost touch with, reading magazines, catching up on movies you've been wanting to see).

You will get better over time... it just never happens as fast as we want it to. (That's probably the only guarantee about recovery, actually!)
corvid100
corvid100
I had home 02 and it was a big help. I wasn't discharged with it, but ended up back at the hospital a few days later because I just felt like my heart was working over time making up for being so short of breath because of the PEs. I spent a couple of days on the telemetry unit and fortunately nothing major was going on with my heart, except that when my sats dropped, my heart rate would go quite high. Once I got home on the O2, I could finally sleep lying down in the bed, instead of half sitting up on the couch. I also had a portable O2 tank I used when I went grocery shopping or did other errands. It really helped me be more independent those first couple of weeks. About three weeks out, I had made a good enough recovery that I didn't need the O2 anymore. I probably would have been fine without the O2, but it sure made my life easier for the time I needed it.

As TNT said, pushing yourself can make things worse. It's very frustrating not being to do thing like we're used to. I never felt old till I got hit with the PE's. It's a tough thing to go through, but over time you'll notice improvement.