It sounds like you're taking some good precautions, as far as the medic alert pendant and the wallet card info. The only other thing I can suggest is have someone to call you at a prearranged time and check up on you.

I tend to be an anxious person myself, but on the other hand, I still want to enjoy my life. I'm also a lifer on coumadin for being homozygous FVL. I'm going on a trip to Death Valley with a friend next month. First airplane trip since clotting last June. Now, even though I'm not going to be alone, DV is a long way from a hospital, if I started having a bleed. My way of rationalizing the danger is that I'm old enough I could just as well have a heart attack or a stroke. There are lots of ways I could die. I'm not meaning to be flippant at all here. It's just that when we realize that there's no way to predict or control the bad stuff that can happen to us, we may as well just try to take reasonable precautions as you have and then take a breath and carry on with life.

My brother was an EMT/Firefighter and is now a Paramedic. They do, always, look for medical ID, whether it's jewelry, a card in your wallet, etc. They're thorough. If there was a situation where they had to take you to a hospital, they'd pass the info based on your medical ID on the the doctors at the hospital so the doctor would know your history and situation. Dallas has well equipped, accessible hospitals. It's a major city after all.

Remember, if nothing has happened to you since the PE diagnosis, while home, the chances are pretty slim nothing is going to happen to you while you're not home.

Corvid gives very sensible advice here. You can't have someone with you 24/7. You have to live in the world and go about your business. People who have had trauma do it all the time. How to deal with any of this is just being rational and taking reasonable precautions. I think too that once you're there and have distractions, you won't be so worried.

Maybe doing this trip will give you more confidence going forward. That would be a huge positive. Don't give into fear. It's a bad habit.

Corvid, that sounds like a great trip!

I had a massive bi-lateral PE on 9/9/14 and flew to a conference in So Cal on 11/15/14. Like you, I was worried mostly about leaving the area where the doctors knew my medical history. As it turns out, I had a good flight (even though I am still on blood thinners, I made sure to move my legs a LOT--the other passengers in my row probably thought I was crazy) and when I got to the hotel I set up my schedule so that I could attend all the trainings, but I skipped all the cocktail hours and went up to my room to rest instead. I do wear a medic alert bracelet and I did let the conference organizer (someone I know fairly well, but only in a business capacity) about my condition. Like others suggest, once I was in the swing of the conference, I forgot about a lot of my worries heading into the conference. I still needed to monitor my body and understand what I needed in terms of rest, etc, but my concerns about having an emergency went away quickly. Good luck and have fun!

Stephanie

For the first year after my DVT/PE, I took Lovenox injections 1 hour prior to boarding my flights. Having the Lovenox on board rather than the usual Coumadin helped me feel like I was a bit more in control of the situation.

As to your stay in Dallas, maybe you could check in from time to time with someone trusted back home who understands your anxiety and can talk you through it. You can also do a Google Maps search of doctors, clinics and ERs in the area in case you have questions or need advice. I think the likelihood you'd need those resources is very, very low; but, if you're like me, sometimes it helps you breathe easier knowing you're prepared, and that can make all the difference, especially when you're got an exam on the horizon. Best of luck!

Thanks! All of these are great ideas. I'm going to try to relax and have fun. Luckily, having fun is a huge part of our company culture so hopefully that helps. I got a random call from my doctor too (she knows I'm going away for a while) and she offered to put a medical packet together for me with all of my info which is awesome!

It sounds like everyone is looking out for you ... you're going to do fine and you'll have a great trip!

One thing that I also routinely do is carry a business card for my doctor in my purse. If someone is desperately trying to figure out what is going on with me, they can always call and get info from my main provider. Super long shot that it'll ever get used, but I find it comforting to have available.

Good idea about having your doc's business card. I also have my doc's name and number in my contacts list on my phone. I suspect if someone needed to get a hold of someone I know due to an accident or something, they'd look through my phone.

bsmith, glad your doc is so supportive of you. You'll be fine!

I forgot to mention before that if you can access your medical record online through your provider, there may be an option to download it to a flash drive. Then it can be carried with you in it's own medic alert pendant or bracelet. I've seen them for sale on Amazon. though I would imagine they're for sale through other venues. I haven't done this myself yet, but plan to when I get back to doing solo travel.