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.
When should we become concerned after the fact. When things have been pretty stable for a while and then you start feeling like something might be wrong again?
A little history - multiple PE's 2 to 3 years ago. No apparent cause so gentic testing was done and found to be positive for FVL. Have been on Warfarin since and have done well. Had to have the dosage tweeked every so often but nothing major. Now fast forward to this month. About 2 weeks or so ago I became short of breathe with a heaviness felling in my chest. I just resulted to my asthma inhaler and it helped some what but I noticed I was using it way too much and was getting jittery and some times a little dizzy. I also noticed while it worked okay it did not work completely. I also noticed that if I became active like walking downstairs, taking a shower or lifting something the symtoms returned. So I decided to go see my GP (who also manages my Warfarin/INR). So I had an EKG and he listened to my chest as well, checked my legs and we played 20 questions. He decided it was my asthma. He instructed me to start using my advair and continue with my arbuterol if needed. Also gave me a RX for Singular. Now prior to this appointment I had been on advair and I had stopped the advair as I had an appointment with my allergist who monitors me for my asthma and allergies as we discussed trying different meds the last time I was in. So I leave with a sigh of relief and started using my advair (not the singular just yet as I have an appoitment with allergery doctor next week and want to see where we go with all of this). Any way I started feeling so much better and things were progressing positively. Well that was up until today. I had my INR checked as I am having a procedure done next week and will be off my warfarin and will bridge with lovenoz. INR was 2.2 (my doctor likes to see me between 1.8 and 2.8) so I am good there. I get home and after a little while the shortness of breathe and pressure on the chest is back. Same thing with using the albuterol, it helps but does not relieve all the pressure and shortness of breathe. Then when I do something the shortness of breathe and pressure comes back again. I am still using the advair so no issue there. So I will be calling the doctor first thing in the morning to be seen and be checked out yet again. I am apprehensive now because this is happening again in a short period of time. Also wondering about the decision not to start the singular as well. I guess I want to make sure I have no additional health concerns. I mean if there is a potential problem and I stop my warfarin and bridge with lovenox (one time a day) things may get out of hand or at best I could land back in the hospital.
Geesh I write a book here. Please understand I am not a complainer just proactive about my health issues. I am going to ask GP to order a CT to make sure there are no PE's. I do think this is reasonable considering. If he decides not to then I will call my oncologist (breast cancer 8.5 years ago) and see where he is at. I don't think it will come to it but if need be I think it would be resonable to go to the ER to check things out. If I need to cancel the procedure it needs to be canceled no later then this Thursday.
So please reassure me I am being proactive and not over reacting. I welcome you sharing any experiences with me as well. TIA
A little history - multiple PE's 2 to 3 years ago. No apparent cause so gentic testing was done and found to be positive for FVL. Have been on Warfarin since and have done well. Had to have the dosage tweeked every so often but nothing major. Now fast forward to this month. About 2 weeks or so ago I became short of breathe with a heaviness felling in my chest. I just resulted to my asthma inhaler and it helped some what but I noticed I was using it way too much and was getting jittery and some times a little dizzy. I also noticed while it worked okay it did not work completely. I also noticed that if I became active like walking downstairs, taking a shower or lifting something the symtoms returned. So I decided to go see my GP (who also manages my Warfarin/INR). So I had an EKG and he listened to my chest as well, checked my legs and we played 20 questions. He decided it was my asthma. He instructed me to start using my advair and continue with my arbuterol if needed. Also gave me a RX for Singular. Now prior to this appointment I had been on advair and I had stopped the advair as I had an appointment with my allergist who monitors me for my asthma and allergies as we discussed trying different meds the last time I was in. So I leave with a sigh of relief and started using my advair (not the singular just yet as I have an appoitment with allergery doctor next week and want to see where we go with all of this). Any way I started feeling so much better and things were progressing positively. Well that was up until today. I had my INR checked as I am having a procedure done next week and will be off my warfarin and will bridge with lovenoz. INR was 2.2 (my doctor likes to see me between 1.8 and 2.8) so I am good there. I get home and after a little while the shortness of breathe and pressure on the chest is back. Same thing with using the albuterol, it helps but does not relieve all the pressure and shortness of breathe. Then when I do something the shortness of breathe and pressure comes back again. I am still using the advair so no issue there. So I will be calling the doctor first thing in the morning to be seen and be checked out yet again. I am apprehensive now because this is happening again in a short period of time. Also wondering about the decision not to start the singular as well. I guess I want to make sure I have no additional health concerns. I mean if there is a potential problem and I stop my warfarin and bridge with lovenox (one time a day) things may get out of hand or at best I could land back in the hospital.
Geesh I write a book here. Please understand I am not a complainer just proactive about my health issues. I am going to ask GP to order a CT to make sure there are no PE's. I do think this is reasonable considering. If he decides not to then I will call my oncologist (breast cancer 8.5 years ago) and see where he is at. I don't think it will come to it but if need be I think it would be resonable to go to the ER to check things out. If I need to cancel the procedure it needs to be canceled no later then this Thursday.
So please reassure me I am being proactive and not over reacting. I welcome you sharing any experiences with me as well. TIA
deleted_user
You don't sound like a complainer at all! I don't have any answers for you except that I know what you're going through. I had my PE in Feb. of this year. I felt GREAT in March. Everything went away. About two weeks ago, I started having symptoms again. SOB, chest heaviness, etc. I don't know when to think it's "old" symptoms or "new." I have never been one to go to the doctors for "Stupid" stuff... but now I don't know what to do. I don't want to die from a PE... so I say treat every symptom with major caution and "complain" about everything to the doctor so that they can help :)
frkrhe
Jhumphries, thank you for your reply. It seems we go on for a while and everything is at a comfort level and then bam symtoms come out of the blue and we think is this another PE. It is comforting to know I am not alone in this. I did get an appointment to see my GP and he immediately had me get a chest CT. Now they have the patient wait for results with these because if they see something they do not want you leaving. Good news is there was nothing seen on the CT. I left there singing (well in my head any way - lol). Don't know why the SOB happened, I also had been hypoventilating as well. Sometimes I think life throws us a curve ball and for me I got upset over some recent happenings in my life. Anyway I went home and took a nap and then just lingered around the house. Ate dinner and fell a sleep in my recliner until 2:30 a.m. I woke up feeling better then I had all week. I still have a couple other appointments I want o make just to make sure the SOB is not related to anolther health issue but I am going to bask in the glory that at this point it is not a PE.
deleted_user
I sometimes think that anxiety plays a key role. I've never had anxiety before, but I surely think I have it now. It's just so scary b/c we don't want to get another PE and let it go undected. So, our mind goes to the worth case... trust me I know... Every time I get SOB or chest heaviness I have fear my lungs or heart is failing- because that happened the last time. It's just terrifying. So, it's always great to go to the DR. and get a good report
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