Possible PE, confused about what my GP is doing.
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Sorry to make this lengthy. I have been having consistent shortness of breath for about 2 weeks now. At first I immediately went to my GP, they ran blood work, EKG, and ECG. All were normal. Now 2 1/2 weeks later and I am still out of breath. My GP thinks anxiety so she prescribed me 10mg Lexapro. I have yet to take it because I just don't think this is anxiety. My GP called me about 5 days ago to check in and I told her I was still out of breath. So she now is concerned about a possible PE. Here is the part that I am confused about. She says the she is going to order a CT Pulmonary angio with contrast and to wait to hear back as they need prior auth from my insurance. Okay, so a day goes by and nothing, then another. So I call and ask what is going on and they say that my insurance is giving them a hard time. I say to heck with the insurance I'll just pay out of pocket. Because at this point my understanding is that this is pretty serious. Why would I wait around for insurance? Well, the weekend comes and she says that if I am that freaked out to just go to the ER. What? Should I not be freaked out? Here I am almost 6 days after she told me she wanted me to have a CT angio and I have had nothing done. So I call and ask if I can at least do another test, for example the d-dimer. She says that its too late in the game for that. What? Well, how about a chest X ray to rule anything else out? No, that won't tell you anything. So here I sit. Waiting to drop dead, or not, because I am not sure what to do. I got so anxious and depressed about it one night that I wrote letters to all my loved ones, funeral directions included. I don't feel any worse. I have no pain, a TON of anxiety now because of this whole situation, and I am just confused. I have contemplated just going to the ER. But my only symptom is shortness of breath. Is it true that it is too late for d dimer? Anyone have any advice?
0 likes, 2 replies
carrie27300 cwelch0
Posted
samuels cwelch0
Posted
Hi,
?I had no other symptoms either, only severe shortness of breath, couldn't shower without getting breathless, I just put mine down to my Angina worsening, I also had a sore calf muscle, not sore to touch, I thought I may of strained a muscle while working one day, it didn't get any better after a week so fronted up to my GP, he agreed, strained muscle, 2 days later went to emergency with my angina chest pain, triage nurse asked why was I limping, I explained, she had a look, she said to me I'm more worried about your leg than your chest pain today, my calf muscle was puffed up, hot to the touch. I was seen to straight away, D dimer blood test was done, came back very high for a definite positive, D dimers aren't conclusive, you can get a false negative or false positive due to other factors, a contrast CT scan was also ordered, they found blood clots everywhere in both my lungs.
?Like you I never displayed any of the "text book" PE pains, apart from the breathlessness, however as the months went on I did develop some of the text book symptoms, like hurting to breath, sharp pains in the back and shoulders, dizzy and feeling weak. Was put on anti coagulation for life, was told I was very lucky it was picked up pretty quickly.
I don't think any time is to late for a D dimer blood test but the doctors should know all about this. I wouldn't be mucking around anymore and get straight to an emergency department.