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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kerenza 01/30/2009

I went to my gp yesterday with chest pains and a sense of doom. I have tried hard not to be paranoid after the PE and I had ignored palpitations for 2 days.Anyway he sent me straight to hospital, they did a few blood tests which were all ok and finally decided to give me a ct scan at 8pm tonight. Have to admit I was crying while they did it, bought all the memories of 2 months ago back again.

Thank god I don't have another E, I do in fact have pneumonia. I thought I'd had 2 chest infections but apparently I've just been very unlucky and got pneumonia.
I am so damn relieved, I had a weird few moments this morning though. When I was thrombolysed I thought it totally got rid of the clot. Turns out it gets rid of some but the body does the rest over a matter of months. I was in shock for a few minutes thinking this things was actually still inside me. It passed though and I'm back :-) got to take it easy for a while and let my body start to heal but I still feel like the luckiest woman right now!

Karen xx

deleted_user 01/30/2009

I'm so sorry that you had to go through this. And its totally natural to think the worst because that's just how we are made. Thank the Lord you didn't have any more clots. But, having pneumonia is still bad, I've had it once and it took me a whole month to recover. Please rest and take it easy. I'll be praying for your complete recovery.

ShilosMommy 01/30/2009

Karen,

I'm so happy that you don't have another PE. Strange times when one is "happy" to have pneumonia, huh?

Oddly, can you believe that I've just been through almost exactly this same thing tonight. My INR was much too low today, then I had appointment with my internist and coupling my low INR with a bad incident I had last night of chest pain he insisted on another CT. While I was waiting for the results, I just kept thinking that I don't know how I could handle going through this whole process again, although surely this one would not be as severe as the first (I must have had a similar situation to yours, as I also received thrombolysis). I still just don't think I could handle it again. My results were negative for PE, so all is good, though I sure can't wait until I get to the point when I don't have any symptoms to cause all this worry.

I hope you get better soon, I'm so sorry that you have to deal with pneumonia on top of the PE recovery.

Best wishes,
Sarah

deleted_user 01/30/2009

I am so sorry that you went through this recent ordeal but am so happy that you don't have a PE. Take it easy and give yourself a chance to heal.

Glad to hear you are doing better too Sarah.

deleted_user 01/31/2009

Karen,

I don't mean to scare you but please check back with your Drs as PE's are sometimes mistaken for pneumonia because once the PE is a few days old it's hard to differentiate the infiltrates of PE from pneumonia. They misdiagnosed me that way and I went over a month being treated for pneumonia before I got another DVT\PE. WE have to be our own advocates with these Drs as they don't always have all the answers.

Ferr 01/31/2009

I agree with kjc as I too was diagnosed with pneumonia and eventually a blood clot, they aren't sure which one actually came first. However if i hadn't shown signs of pneumonia I probably wouldn't have gone into the hospital and probably wouldn't have made it through my first episode of PE's. Remember if the doctor gets upset for you to ask for a second opinion then the doctor isn't worth having anyway, and if he gets upset because you want to make dayum sure your not really having another PE then he again isn't worth having. You need to keep positive and keep positive knowledgeable doctors on your side, even if we have to educate them ourselves.
Take care and stay well

kerenza 01/31/2009

Oh heck, I was feeling so relieved as well. I had no idea that pneumonia and PE looked alike. I'm going to ring the hospital and ask them to have another look at the scan just to be sure. They did a few blood tests as well which were normal so fingers crossed it is just pneumonia

Thank you for all your good wishes and here's to a healthy year for all of us!

Karen xx

deleted_user 01/31/2009

Oh Karen I'm so sorry you've been through this, I hope all is ok when you speak to the Dr again (not that having pneumonia is a good thing).

Take care of yourself xx

deleted_user 01/31/2009

Hi there Karen!
I just typed a long reply to you but its somehow disappeared - don't know what I did!
Anyway if there are 2 replies from me you know why!
Basically I just wanted to add to what others have said - take care of yourself and try not to worry too much - these damned PEs certainly freak us out but be patient and I'm sure you'll start to feel better very soon - love Sandi x

t

kerenza 01/31/2009

Well I've had a call back and there's no question in their minds that I don't have another PE. They weren't at all funny about me asking, I'm very lucky to have a hospital which specialises in these things on my doorstep :-)

Thanks again for all the good wishes, I'm going to have a lazy few days and have a big log fire tonight. Mmm hot buttered toast and a large mug of tea while I watch the flames. I could get used to this spoiling business

deleted_user 02/01/2009

I want to repeat what some of the others have said that Pneumonia and a PE can be confused. I to was diagnosed with Pneumonia first. But thankfully the ER doc still didn't think I had it because he didn't hear anything in my lungs. SO he sent me for another CAT scan the second time with the IV contrast. If he hadn't done that there is a chance I wouldn't be here right now.

Ferr 02/01/2009

Kerenza, I'm glad your did the call back and all is well, Better safe than sorry. Take care of yourself, and make sure you get plenty of needed rest. (Sending you a big bowl of Homemade Chicky Noodle soup)

kerenza 02/02/2009

Ooh that soup sounds good! I'm feeling ultra sorry for myself as I'm a winter gal and love the cold weather. It never gets overly cold here in the UK but the beginning of december was the coldest for many years... I was in a boiling hospital with the PE. We now have real snow and I'm too ill to go out in it!!

Thanks again for all the replies, I'm learning far more from you guys than I did from any of the doctors xx

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