If a portion of the clot breaks away from the vein wall it is called an embolus. An embolus can travel through the vein to other parts of the body. When an embolus travels to the lungs this is called a Pulmonary embolism. Pulmonary embolism can be life threatening if the embolus blocks the main artery to the lungs and prevents blood from getting through. (more...)

Other sites:

http://www.lung.ca/diseases-maladies/a-z/embolus-embolie/index_e.php

http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/pe/pe_what.html

http://www.wikidoc.org/index.php/Pulmonary_Embolism#For_Patients

http://www.utmedicalcenter.org/adam/encyclopedia/1/000132.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pulmonary-embolism/DS00429

http://body.aol.com/conditions/pulmonary-embolism-major-1/topic-overview

http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic490.htm

A cute video of a blood clot traveling from a lower part of the leg to the lung which is called a "Pulmonary Embolism " .

I am curious to hear from those who have had a PE, what it actually feels like. I have read the symptoms of wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath. I would like to hear how you knew you had PE--are there sharp pains like pluracy? Does it happen suddenly or come on gradually? Anything you wish to share is appreciated.

For me there was sharp pains, wheezing, and couphing purple like blood.
When I was a kid I had asthma and bronchitis often, so to me (stupidly) I thought it was just me being sick. A week later (stupidly again) I went to the ER. They thought I had pnuemonia, so they gave me a shot in the ole butt and sent me home. I felt great for the first four days but my leg still hurt,,,,,,,,,hmmm so I put a warm pack on my leg and rubbed it a little then when I stood up my heart started raciing uncontrolably and I passed out My wife was at work so I just laid there when I came to, scared as hell and waited for her to get home/ Stupidly again guess I couldve called 911 but I was too scared to even move to the phone,,,, So anyway that is my dumb story. Now I am doing so much better and the PE scared me out of smoking forever.

Wow--

Guess I have had some of those symptoms while I was home for a week between hospital stays in the summer. My wheezing didn't last long tho and seemed like it was only when I laid on my left side. If I had a PE, it must've been very small. When I got out of the hospital the last time, a guy in my church, younger than me dropped dead in his bathroom from PE. 2 teenage kids. It is still pretty sad. His wife can hardly talk to me for some reason. We didn't know them very well. Must be hard for them to wonder why I made it and he didn't. Thanks for telling me your experience Justin. I'm glad you made it thru for your family too. --sb

Hello all

Well to share my story of my own PE

For about a week i felt a sharp pain in my left side as though i had knocked and brusied it. i did ignore this thinking "oh well it will go away"
but into the second week i could not even lay on my left side to sleep and i started to get short of breath.
climbing the stairs became hard , so I took myself off to the GP surgery
on the Friday and he told me because I had recently had flu maybe it was from that and to rest up etc and sending me on my way with stronger painkillers, he listened to my chest said well it sounds clear etc, " great GP huh"
I took myself off back home as the doctors I felt knew best.

By the Sat night early hours Sun morning I knew something was not right
the pain got so bad I could hardly breathe by this time and it became a struggle to inhale and exhale as each time i tried this sharp pain would kick in, so I took myself off to the emergency dept and i was treated straight away given a CT scan which comfirmed I had a PE
I stayed in hospital for a week was put onto warfarin, and was told my levels should be between 2.5 and 3.0 had blood tests done every couple of days until my levels settled.


I have to admit it was scary and a wake up call to how and what life is all about, and with the help of this site now i hope i get to understand my condition more thanks to all your posts.

I had the same symptoms as mentioned - sharp chest pains and wheezing. Every time I took a deep breath I would have a stabbing pain in my chest.

There was not much warning really, I woke up with the chest pain and when it did not go away overnight, I went to the doctor the following morning and was hospitalised the same day after PE was discovered.

Another symptom worth mentioning is that I could not lie flat on my back because of pain and shortness of breath. I packed a lot of pillows behind my back the night at home and also the next week in hospital I raised the bed so that I could sleep more upright. I found it easier to breathe and less painful.

After reading posts from ya'll and speaking to others in person who have had PE, I feel 99% sure that I had one when I was 23 y/o and 9 months pregnant. I had sharp stabbing pains that hit me while I was minding my own business, eating bacon and eggs and watching Amoir Sadat (sp?) be assassinated on TV in 1981. All of a sudden I could not take a breath w/o it feeling like a knife was stabbing under my ribs on the right side and turning, twisting after it went in. I could hardly get enough breath to speak to my husband and ask him to come home to take me to the hospital. I had pain the whole afternoon and received heavy pain killers at the hospital and they thought I was having an accute gallbladder attack. It lasted several hours and they decided to induce my labor and I had a c-section just in case they needed to do an emergency gallbladder removal.

Who knows what it was at this point?

Hi all,

Funnily enough, I had only minor symptoms... a bit of heaviness/tightness in the middle of my chest (they said at the hospital, at the time, it was due to a bit of asthma from the stress, and cleared my angiogram... till we got the results back today over 2 wks. later!)... my back was a little sore, but nothing that would make me think I had PE.... but then again it was only a small clot... PHEW!

I have had 2 PEs, with different symptoms each time. I was on coumadin for a year after my 1st one. Now, after 2, I am on for life.

First PE:
I almost passed that morning. Everything went black while I was in line at a bagel shop. The staff tried to call an ambulance. I didn't let them.
My resting heartrate was around 125 beats per minute.
I had trouble breathing after walking across a room.
I slept most of the day, but if I got out of bed to walk to the bathroom, my heart would beat so fast that I would have trouble falling back to sleep.
I had no pain.
My PE was massive and bi-lateral.

Second PE (4 years later):
I had heaviness/pressure in my chest on the L side.
I would wake up in the middle of the night with my heart pounding.
I couldn't sleep on my left side w/out my heart pounding too hard.
I sometimes felt the presence of my heart, like a hard heavy baseball in my chest.
I could breathe just fine and my heart rate was not elevated.
The second PE was small and only in my left lung.