3 ms·
I'm currently on anticoagulants for my second run-in with pulmonary embolisms, and they were fairly different experiences both times. The first one started out
by Zikes 10y ago
I'm currently on anticoagulants for my second run-in with pulmonary embolisms, and they were fairly different experiences both times. The first one started out as what felt like a sore shoulder, which "migrated" down to my chest over a few hours, and then felt like I had a cactus in my lungs. The second instance felt more like pressure than pain, but was similar enough to the tail end of my previous encounter that I was able to recognize it.
In the first case, a clot dislodged and traveled through my heart about an hour after I arrived at the hospital. I had debated waiting until morning as I wasn't sure an ER visit was necessary, but if I had waited any longer I likely would not have survived.
- canonic 10y agoJust curious: how did you have shoulder/chest pain before the clot embolized to your lungs? Or did you go with a swollen leg and the rest happened after you arrived? Also, the vast majority of people with PE survive. Depending on the size of the bastard, you can get heart dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension (which can be very severe) down the road. Basically, unless your blood pressure tanked, your chance of dying from it was probably close to zero. Not to say it's not a scary thing or that you shouldn't go to the hospital immediately, but we over-diagnose and over-treat PE's all the time. The latter is because we over-estimate their severity.
- Zikes 10y agoThe clot started out in my legs, likely formed as a result of a transatlantic trip a few weeks prior. Parts of the clot had previously dislodged and traveled to my lungs, leading to multiple embolisms. When the much larger clot dislodged and traveled through my heart it dropped my heart rate to about 20bpm, which is fairly close to zero.