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.
So I sat down 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 elsewhere because the lines were so long. I finished my meal and while I was waiting I felt my heart racing again and fluttering in my chest. The fluttering in my chest made me cough. I started feeling faint so I got up and went to the bathroom, thinking it was just me being exhausted.
On the way home I felt a little faint. I went back to the salon to get my car and my heart started racing again.
At this time I started getting worried. I called my husband and I told him what I was feeling and he asked me if I needed to go to the hospital. I said no I think it’s exhaustion. He said to just come home. So I drank some water and started to drive home. As I was driving I started feeling worse. I prayed to God to let me get to the nearest hospital and I did.
I get to the ER and they do my vitals. My blood pressure was high and my heart bpm was at 200 now. I was very scared. They took me back right away. 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.
Needless to say, if I had just driven home and chalked it up to just being overworked and tired, I would not be here to tell my story today. My doctors say I’m lucky.
It was very traumatic. The first couple of months were so hard and I just kept thinking I was going to die. Knowing that people do die from PEs was not helping. I had to meditate in order to ease my mind.
My advice to others is if you feel that anything abnormal is going on with your body, seek medical attention right away.
Resources
Psychological Impact of Blood Clots
Facebook Support Group
Blood Clot Resource Center
