I was at work just sitting down when my heart started racing. My Apple Watch alerted me that my heart was beating at 140 bpm, something I had never felt before. I chalked it up to just being overworked and tired.
I drank some water and took a break. My heart started to slow down and it finally went down to normal. I got up, cleaned up the salon, and left to go to a street fair. I felt fine the entire time I was there.
We decided to get some food at Texas Roadhouse. After finishing my meal, I felt my heart racing again and fluttering in my chest. The fluttering made me cough. I started feeling faint so I got up and went to the bathroom thinking it was just me being exhausted.
I started to feel better, so we paid and left. On the way home, I felt a little faint and my heart started racing again. I started getting worried so I called my husband and I told him what I was feeling. He asked me if I needed to go to the hospital and I said no, so he said to come home.
I drank some water and as I was driving I started feeling worse, so I prayed that I would get to the nearest hospital and I did. At the ER, they took my vitals and found that my blood pressure was high and my heart bpm was 200. I was very scared.
I told them about a pain underneath my bra cup near my ribs and they decided to do a CT scan. The results came back that I had two blood clots in both my lungs. One was a chronic pulmonary embolism and the other one was a new one.
This experience was very traumatic. The first couple of months were so hard and I just kept thinking I was going to die. Knowing that people die from PEs was not helping. I had to meditate in order to ease my mind.
Needless to say, if I had just driven home and chalked it up to being overworked and tired I would not be here to tell my story today. My doctors say I’m lucky.
Resources
Psychological Impact of Blood Clots
Questions to Ask Your Doctor
Blood Clot Resource Center
