Clots!

Guess where I was... the hospital... for 4 days... with clots.

Took that long to get the right mix of Heparin in my blood so that they could switch me over to Xarelto. Also because my side was still killing me because the one clot on my right side was big... and it became an infarction, meaning it cut off the blood supply to part of the lung, essentially killing it. On the left side I had numerous smaller clots. I felt weaker after I left, probably because I'm walking around and other stuff that I didn't do for 6 days prior (I rested for two days before going to the hospital). I found out that if you have that big of a clot, you're probably going to cough some out... and I did... about 15 times over 2 days. Problem now is I have a tickle in my lungs that makes me cough, and it's causing me to release sputum with bright red blood, which is not good. I'm going to give that a day or two to clear up by resting. If it persists or gets worse, guess where I'll be going...

Oh, didn't tell you... I almost died twice. I felt the clamps on my lung close, as to make it so I couldn't inhale. I thought I was a dead man... then it released. Second time it happened just as the nurse was injecting me with pain meds. The morphine released the pressure from the big clot, thereby allowing me to breathe.

Blood thinners for life, folks. Small price.

 

Welcome to the club, hope you have good insurance! Surprised they fooled with Heparin, they went straight to TPA in my case.

glad you made it through ok! You’ll most likely never know the difference if they put up you on Xarelto. BIG step forward compared to Warfarin.

 

The Heparin was IV. I'm on Xarelto permanently. What's TPA? And why is Warfarin bad?

They wanted to put me on Cumadin. I said NUH UH!!!

 

Very informative, enlightening thread. Thank you all for the advice, and stories.

 

Yeah, there was no way I was taking Coumadin. Not staying in the hospital for 5 more days. Yech!

 

tPA is Tissue plasminogen activator, the famous "clot buster" drug. It comes with it's own list of do's and dont's but it can dissolve existing clots. At $10K per dose. (gulp). What the heck, I'm worth it.....

 

My wife had a PE at 29, not from a DVT. She is 38 now. We spent 1 month in ICU. Still have no idea what from. Just hoping it doest happen again. We have visited everyone and anyone. Had one child thankfully since. Zero explanation. It would be fitting if it was me, but not Her.

 

Had a pe in 2015, no dvt. My buddy who is a MD told me that I had a high probability of having a hidden cancer. Sure enough that's where the clot came from.

 

I’m taking Brillanta, along with a baby aspirin and a statin drug after having a heart attack because of a 100% blockage. They put in a stent. It’s been over 2 yrs ago. I’ll say, I took baby aspirin daily for years. Never had a problem. I stopped about 4-5 yrs ago, because of stomach bleeding. I would sometimes take a few more for other pain also. Anyway, The blood thinner, brillanta works together with the aspirin. The statin helps keep platelets from sticking together along with lowering bad cholesterol. High blood pressure meds also. I should have been taking the statins years ago, and the BP was high for a while also. Both were red flags. Cholesterol and high BP. It all works together to cause a blockage. Heart attack could have been prevented, had I not postponed my check up. Thankfully my heart function returned to normal after 6 mos. No dead tissue. Best to catch a blockage before having a heart attack. My Father wasn’t so Lucky. The damage caused by his heart attacks caused heart failure. He passed at 58. I’m 56 now. Hard to believe.