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 found this forum while recovering from a saddle embolism. My apology in advance for this long winded post. I just want to tell my story to fellow survivors.
Im 57 yr old male in good physical condition till now.
I had knee replacement surgery in May, 2016 and was diagnosed with a dvt in July after noticing pain in my calf. Felt like a cramp. Took xerelto as directed for 3 months or so and it went away.
Then came September, 2917. I spent a week in the Colorado Rockies on an elk hunting trip of 1,100 miles one way. While wearing out my boots in the mountains I noticed a pain in my calf that didn't go way. Had it checked out when I got home, received a diagnosis of a superficial blood clot that doesn't require treatment. That was 9/18. On 9/26 I experienced an episode of shortness of breath that led to a trip to ER. No pain, just a stuffiness in my chest. Diagnosis this time was a saddle embolism. Spent 2 days in the hospital on heparin drip then went home with orders"activity as tolerated". Oh, back to xerelto.
it took a while for me to realize how close I came to death as this thing snuck up on me without a lot of symptoms.
The day before my PE I was in better shape than most of my contemporaries. Now I fatigue very easily, have a nagging dry cough, and am sensitive to cold air, bleed like crazy with a minor cut and have developed occasional chest pain. Talk about a lifestyle change! I have bouts of anxiety-is it gonna happen again? and I find myself wondering why have I been spared?! I suppose the answers to those questions will be revealed when the time is right.
Went to a wedding reception Saturday night, danced with my wife of 34 years.There were 300 people there and I know for sure I was the luckiest guy in the room.
Good luck all
-
Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
-
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.
Glad your doing better. I actually feel pretty good there is an "awareness"" wasn't there before. Part of the roller coaster is that upon discharge from the hospital I was left pretty much on my own as to what comes next. From reading here and other forums that seems pretty common.
Some of the mental tricks I use is to tell myself that " it's a lovely day today"., and Today is __day of the rest of my life. For me it's day 42
I had to look up anti phospholipid syndrome. I'm gonna be tested tosee if theres something like this going on with my blood. Won't be till April.
I'm back at work also. We're in the sawmill business so when I avoid heavy lifting,strenuous activity,chances of sustaining a cut,my productivity is not what it was. Operating a chainsaw is out but I'm not gonna miss that much, lol The people we work with can be very helpful in getting things normalized
I have found that I see things differently now.- don't sweat the small stuff anymore.
Sounds like your mentally in a pretty good place, hang in there.
Best wishes