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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So ... this was weird ...

TossNTurn
TossNTurn
**Warning! There is grossness contained within**

I have sinus issues and a lot of mornings I wake up and spend the first hour or so blowing my nose and feeling snot drain down the back of my throat. Some really bad mornings, the snot triggers a serious gag reflex and I wind up doing some puking to clear it out before I can go on with my day. (No, I'm not pregnant!)

This morning was one such morning. When I was done with the porcelin goddess and went on getting ready, I realized that my entire face was splotchy and covered with little red dots. It is very patchy and my eyes, forehead, and chin are still pretty white, but the rest of my face looks like I have an odd splotchy sunburn.

I am very fair and this is *really* noticeable and weird looking. Everyone at work was convinced I was having an allergic reaction, although Benadryl had no effect. I'm thinking that maybe the puking caused blood vessels in my face to burst and now I've got a funky petuchaie pattern. My cheeks are a little hot, but otherwise I've got no burning, itching, etc.

I'm in no hurry to go see the doc (don't think this'll kill me), so I guess I'm wondering if anyone has ever had such a thing occur. I figure I've got to be the million-in-one person to develop a puke-induced sunburn, but whatever. Just another oddness in my life on warfarin, eh? I'm really hoping it goes away quickly so people stop looking at me funny. Any thoughts out there?
kerenza
kerenza
Welcome to my world! This happens to me at least once a week and it takes a couple of days for the worst of the splodges to die down. If it's a bad bout of retching my eyelids look like I have a weird pattern of eyeshadow on lol. It was a bit disconcerting when my dad said "what the hell's wrong with your face" but according to my gp it is indeed petuchaie and there's nothing he can do about it.

I'm very fair too so it does really stand out so I decided to invest in some make up which is meant to cover blemishes. I use bare escentuals which does tone it down to the point you feel you won't scare young children but doesn't completely cover it. I also have this on both feet (peteuchaie not the make up!) but unless I learn to hover, it's something I have learned to put up with :-)

Karen
deleted_user
deleted_user
Your def not alone. The same happens to me even in my pre-warfarin days. The best thing is to "try" to not wretch so hard... Nearly impossible!
rmb
rmb
I'm not really a puker. I think I can count 5-6 times in my 46 years of living where I've thrown up. But I am a serious gagger. It was worse when I was a kid, but even now, I have such a strong gag reflex. When I have puked, and even when I'm just wretching really hard, my chest and neck become very red and blotchy. Looks like a sun burn and it lasts for a while.

Outside of gagging, since being on warfarin, I do get petuchaie on my chest, breasts and upper arm. No idea why it's focused in that area, and it comes and goes.

Sorry, I have no real answers, just that it's likely from the force in which you're letting loose!

For the record, to me, this has been the worst sinus/allergy season I've experienced in a long time. Snot Central at my house.
TossNTurn
TossNTurn
Thanks guys! I still look ridiculous this morning, but I'm less worried that my INR is sky-high and that somehow caused this. Guess I'll just have to be more careful with the retching in the future ...

Glad the weekend is almost here so I don't have to answer questions at work for a few days!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I have puked so hard my whole body ached, so I can relate. My little sister is the Typhoid Mary of stomach flu (So I guess she would be Stomach Flu Mary), and she regularly gave it to all of us. It's not uncommon to burst a capillary or two million in those cases, especially if your throat and facial muscles were very stressed during the act. They go away, but they are like teeny-tiny bruises, so not quickly.
Ferr
Ferr
What you seeing is Petechiae where the small veins in your face are rupturing. There isn't a lot you can do about it but it is something your doctor should be made aware of. He may be able to give you something to help your sinus so you don't wake up with slime running down the back of your throat and the retching. It kind of falls into the same category of not blowing your nose so hard it causes it to bleed. Petechiae is not uncommon especially for us on blood thinners. I've seen some folks come in with red splotches and dots all over their bodies. If it continues to worsen you might ask your doctor to not only check your PT/INR but also your platlett count. Sometimes when our platletts are low it increases the petechiae.
Hugs
Ferr
LauraLu
LauraLu
Try dabbing at the splotches with a cotton ball soaked in Witch Hazel (way cheap and found in any store with a pharmacy). I get splotchy from coughing too hard sometimes. I'm always thinking I'll rupture something - it's a thought that only a fellow warfarin lifer can relate to!
chicago58
chicago58
i hear you on this one. sometimes even the Doctors don't even know what causes the petuchaie. i woke u[ one morning after an all night scratching fest. i was covered all over my arms back ankles and anywhere i managed to get my hands on. i got referralled to death before a combination of doctors came to the conclusion at least for me is the itching was a histimine reaction to the lovenox so i have to take large doses of aderax 2 every 6 hours or i will scratch myself bloody.i will wake up in the morning and anyplace there was pressure like sleeping on an arm will be covered in petuchiae when i cough to hard all the brown freckles on my face turn into little red spots. i am to the point for now till it is in better control i have to wear long sleeve shirts so as to not scare people with how bad my arms look and to limit the itching somewhat. i can't take the adarax at full dose dung the day due to the tired factor. all i need is one hour of itching and it will take a week to heal. unfortunately until we have other options mine is lovenox for life i just pray the itching settles down soon it has been about five months. the wrecthing makes my face look scarey it has been bad lately just from four rounds of antibiotics in 2 months got a barf bucket in the bed on on the couch in the bathroom and one in the care. for me nausea and puking is a daily unwelcome friend i hope all this settles down soon.
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