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 there,
Haven't posted in awhile. I had my PE back in January 2012 when I was 10 wks pregnant. Now my son is 2 and we've started thinking about having another child (we also have a nine year old), but spent the past few months seeing dr's to get opinions. My hematologist said there's no contraindications re pregnancy post PE -- I would just do the Fragmin again at a lower dose (5000 units I think). She said it's up to me and if I want to go through the injections etc... I told her a big part of it for me is the anxiety. If I get short of breath I'm for sure going to think I have PE, and I need to figure out if I can handle that, and will be able to calm myself down. The hematologist also told me I have Factor 5 Leiden which they apparently knew for like a year but no one bothered to tell me (I live in Quebec, where the health care system is not so great sometimes, you constantly have to advocate for yourself). My OB/GYN is a pretty cautious guy and said it would be a high-risk pregnancy and he can't guarantee everything would be OK, but on the other hand, everything might be just fine. And my GP says go for it because we have the medical technology to handle a pregnancy when there's risk of clot, meaning I would just take Fragmin. So now I'm trying to decide and just tonight I was tossing and turning, thinking back to being in the ER and getting diagnosed with PE, and I thought I'd write to you guys. I guess my biggest fear is having another PE during the pregnancy and dying and leaving my husband and two kids (I also have a 9 year old -- no clot issues in that pregnancy). I don't like to live life being afraid and base decisions on fear. I have one friend who did three pregnancies on Fragmin, but she didn't have PE, she'd had a DVT years before. Any words of wisdom for me?
Oh yeah, and I have a theory about why I got the PE back in 2012. I call it the "perfect storm": I was pregnant, have Factor 5, had just done a 12 hour bus ride plus a 6 hour plane ride, and I was dehydrated. So my theory is that all those combined factors led to the multiple clots in my lungs. I guess I'll never really know which one of those factors caused the clot, but I certainly had a lot going for me to give me a clot. I guess I'm still trying to make sense of why it happened.
Haven't posted in awhile. I had my PE back in January 2012 when I was 10 wks pregnant. Now my son is 2 and we've started thinking about having another child (we also have a nine year old), but spent the past few months seeing dr's to get opinions. My hematologist said there's no contraindications re pregnancy post PE -- I would just do the Fragmin again at a lower dose (5000 units I think). She said it's up to me and if I want to go through the injections etc... I told her a big part of it for me is the anxiety. If I get short of breath I'm for sure going to think I have PE, and I need to figure out if I can handle that, and will be able to calm myself down. The hematologist also told me I have Factor 5 Leiden which they apparently knew for like a year but no one bothered to tell me (I live in Quebec, where the health care system is not so great sometimes, you constantly have to advocate for yourself). My OB/GYN is a pretty cautious guy and said it would be a high-risk pregnancy and he can't guarantee everything would be OK, but on the other hand, everything might be just fine. And my GP says go for it because we have the medical technology to handle a pregnancy when there's risk of clot, meaning I would just take Fragmin. So now I'm trying to decide and just tonight I was tossing and turning, thinking back to being in the ER and getting diagnosed with PE, and I thought I'd write to you guys. I guess my biggest fear is having another PE during the pregnancy and dying and leaving my husband and two kids (I also have a 9 year old -- no clot issues in that pregnancy). I don't like to live life being afraid and base decisions on fear. I have one friend who did three pregnancies on Fragmin, but she didn't have PE, she'd had a DVT years before. Any words of wisdom for me?
Oh yeah, and I have a theory about why I got the PE back in 2012. I call it the "perfect storm": I was pregnant, have Factor 5, had just done a 12 hour bus ride plus a 6 hour plane ride, and I was dehydrated. So my theory is that all those combined factors led to the multiple clots in my lungs. I guess I'll never really know which one of those factors caused the clot, but I certainly had a lot going for me to give me a clot. I guess I'm still trying to make sense of why it happened.
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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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.
I think I would try to step back a bit from focusing on why you previously clotted. Knowing why isn't going to change how you'd be monitored or treated during your pregnancy and after delivery. It's relevant only in that you'll be considered a high risk and that you'll require injection. In that sense, you know so much already about the risks that this knowledge puts you ahead of the game.
My OB/GYN told me if I were to get pregnant that I'd need shots pretty much from the moment of conception. She's pretty familiar with clotters, as she comes from a family of them. I'd be comfortable with her working with me if I was to get pregnant, but I'm not so sure about your OB/GYN. You might ask for a reference to a more specialized OB/GYN and go in to talk to him/her for opinions.
Also, what does your hematologist say? Do you have one? I know when mine talked to me about clotting disorders (I probably have one, but it isn't one of the known ones), we also talked about pregnancy risks and concerns.
I think, first and foremost, that you need to find an OB/GYN that you trust and go from there. Otherwise, I think everything is going to be more stressful than it needs to be. Best of luck to you!
I guess you're right that it doesn't really change anything to know exactly why I clotted. It happened and now I have to deal with it going forward. For all those out there who are just a few days, weeks, or months post PE, I can tell you that in my experience I'm feeling really good physically and even ran a half-marathon last year, something that was so inconceivable a few months post-PE. So it gets better!