So I went from slowly re-learning how to walk again with my broken ankle to now last week I was hospitalized again this time for a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs). The past 5 days I have been in the hospital from clots in both of my lungs major ones in my left side and clots in my right leg. This all resulted from the combination of having surgery on my broken leg and the fact that I use birth control. So now for the rest of my life I will be off birth control and for the next 6 months I will be on Coumadin (blood thinners) and have a different diet. Well thats the update for now I go from one hospitalization to the next. My personal opinion right now is I’m ready to be done with hospitals but yet I’m very thankful as it could have been alot worse in the long run!
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FIRST TIME I GET PE 5 YEARS AGO,AFTER SURGERY.I GOT A BIG ONE IN THE BUTTOM OF RIGTH LUNG.ONE WEEK IN HOSPITAL ON COUMADIN AND MORFEEN .PAIN WAS BAD,I COULD NOT TALK AND DID NOT WANT TO SEE NOBODY.WHEN IGET HOME I WAS SOME TIME ON LOVENOX,6 MONTS ON (WARFARIN)COUMADIN.AFTER 3 YEARS I GOR PE ON MY LEFT LUNG,IT WAS 2 BIG ONES AND THE REST LIKE POPPY SEEDS ON ALL LEFT LUNG.I DID NOT KNOW THAT IN THE BEGINING.I WAS THINKING I HAVE COLD. 3 DAYS IN THE HUSPITAL AND SAME MEDICINE AGAIN,PAIN.I KNOW I CANT BE LIKE I WAS BEFORE,COUMADIN TO REST OF MY LIFE. BUT THANK GOD I AM HERE.THANK U.
Update on my pulmonary embolism status. It has been decided that my bilateral embolisms were caused by a special way to donate blood since I have no history. Just a few days before symptoms began I gave the 2 for 1 blood donation where they remove the red cells and strip out the plasma which they put back into you.I guess we are all very different in how we react to donating blood. Of course, on coumadin, I’m unable to give even 1 pint of blood and now I’m afraid to ever give again.
Thanks so much for the most in-depth list of foods with different levels of vitamin K that I have seen. I was just released from hospital due to Pulmonary Emboli and one in right calf (still using dictionary). Never sick and last hospitlization was 32 years ago.SURPRISE! Guess I love those computer games more than I realized since retiring.Not any other problems at all. Anyway,you sure helped me with your web page.El
I am 38 years old and was diagnosed with a pulmonary emoblism with infarction in 2007. One day I noticed a big bruise on my right ankle that was very painful. My doctor put an air cast on it and told me to ice it everyday. I noticed that I was having problems breathing easily. Pain in my neck, face, shoulders and very back headaches. I could not move, go to the restroom, dress myself, talk, think or sleep. After several weeks of this and relocating to another state, a PE was discovered. God is so faithful! I still continue to get pleurisy and pneumonia every other month or so. I was on Lovenox for two years and Coumadin restitant and hospitalized off and on since 2007 for long periods of time. I have not returned back to my normal activities and am very concerned about my future. The root cause of my Pulmonary Embolism was YAZ birth control pills. I have no family history of blood clots and do not smoke. Pleas spread the word about birth control pills to every woman you know…her life depends on it.
Rupal~
I was in the hospital for 5 days for my PE. Then afterwords I was on pain medications for at least 2 weeks. After that I still had pain but I would say after about 3-6 months it dulled to just pain when the weather changed or when I worked out a lot. I would say in the first month or two afterwords though it really still bothered and I always thought I was getting new clots. Stairs or exercising we really hard right away as I couldn’t breathe like I used to. Now its been two years and I hardly can even tell I had the clots in both lungs. The weather still affects it hear and there but I can do everything I used to and I don’t live with constant pain. The only thing I would recommend if you haven’t yet is making sure you don’t carry a genetic predisposition to getting clots. I just got tested for that and luckily mine came back negative but its a good thing to find out from your doctor.
I see that this entry if from a little more than two years ago…but I am 20 years old and was diagnosed with a large PE in my right lung in December….they said it was from birth control and smoking. My recent scans show that my clot has gone away however, I am still in an excruciating amount of pain and have difficulty breathing with limited excursion. How are you doing with your symptoms now? I’m still in college and am currently on medical leave because of the severity of the PE…and I just want to know how long it will be before I can or if I can go back to living my life…
I would appreciate any insight you can give me.
Brandy,
If you had PE, you would have probably been gone by now. I almost died with two of mine before they caught it. It has to be diagnosed quickly as it moves through a persons body to their heart and kills them. Thats how my grandmother died.
I can’t tell you that you don’t have a PE, but it is best you go in to the ER, possibly a different one IF you are still ill this weekend. But check the symptoms of pleurisy, it can make you feel really bad as well. If you are feeling better though, maybe you should go to see your family doctor on Monday and let him/her run a series of tests on you. With PE’s, it takes special tests to find them. I am NOT a doctor though so these are ONLY my own opinions. You have to go on how YOU feel only. Not how anyone else feels or thinks.
I blogged on this topic on March 4, 2007 if you view this link .
I hope you find out very soon what is wrong Brandy. You really need to go to a doctor’s office who will get to the bottom of the problem. Let us know what you find out.
Take good care.
Hi, I am a 30 year old female, generally pretty healthy but I think I have had 3 PE’s. I was at the ER again for the 3rd time Saturday in the last 8-9 months. The doctors keep telling me it’s pluerisy I think they are wrong. I’ve been researching and researching and have come to the conclusion that it is pulmonary embolisms. They are not listening to me and the test that they did I don’t think have anything to even do with checking for PE. These are the symtoms each time I will have tightness in the chest with a restricted feeling like a can’t breathe my heart rate is up there is a God awful pain in my chest that moves through my neck and it aches with every heart beat. I can’t breathe in deep or bend over or hardly even move. I would describe the pain is that of a heart attack. The other thing I find weird is that I got it in Jan. or Feb of this year and have gotten it again like clockwork every 3-4 months since. I still can’t breathe in deep without it hurting. I was just wondering what some of your all symtoms are and were with PE. I don’t want to have this eventually kill me if I am not properly diagnosed. Thanks for your help!
Brandy
Linda~
I can tell you after going thru the same thing its not fun. I’m almost done with my stint on Warfarin (Coumadin). I also was on Lovenox when I first got out of the hospital. For me it took probably at least 2-3 weeks for the pain to diminish enough for me to walk normally again. My doctor told me that it is different with every person that some will absorb the clots completely and some will still have clots for the rest of their lives. I still to this day have some pain in my chest when I breathe really deep (sneezing and yawning for example). When the weather changes especially when it gets really cold I definitely feel the clots. I wouldn’t worry unless the pain changes for the worse. I’m not a doctor though and so if you are concerned I would talk to them. Thats what I ended up doing in a lot of cases.
I’m assuming he’s getting blood testing done pretty regularly. Don’t be worried if they don’t get it regulated right away I went from very thin 4.5 to thick 1.5 (after they had gotten me stabilized in the hospital). It takes time to regulate and sometimes when you think you have it you will eat something different and then screw it all up. Everything affect that score from exercise to food to whatever. Mine took 3 months to figure out the right dosage. My mom who had a leg clot never got exactly right for an extended time.
If your concerned about what to have him eat there are websites out there with information on that and I also bought the Coumadin Cookbook which you can find on Amazon. Feel free to let me know it you have any questions as I have been thru this all before…. My last day of Warfarin is March 15th thank goodness!!!
Hi, My husband was just diagnosed with PE yesterday. I was serching for information on the web. I really dont know much about it, I would appriciate any help or information. He is on lovenox and warfarin. I wanted to know when his chest pains stop and what I should look out for.
Hi Christi, 🙂
I realize your blog regarding pulmonary embolism was several months ago, however, I found it while searching for blogs or websites regarding pulmonary embolism on DVT information or experience. The reason why is that I’ve had about four in the last 3 years, almost dying with 2 of them. I now have a “Greenfield Filter” placed in my inferior vena cava to catch blood clots so they don’t make it to my heart. I have lupus and the doctors say people with lupus or prone to develop blood clots. In addition, I have family history of blood clots with my 65 yr old grandma passing away after hip surgery plus my dad getting a PE after heart surgery.
I mainly wanted to know if you knew that March is “DVT Awareness Month”? I blogged about it yesterday and plan to add my personal history of PE there today. Grandpa and I are newbies to blogging. Would you like to stop by and read my PE information and add a comment to the blog? I would definitely appreciate your input. You can find our blog at Grandparents Cyber Corner. Thank you for sharing your lovely blog Christi
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