Pulmonary Embolism or Anxiety?
For over a week I’ve been suffering from shortness of breath and chest tightness/pain. I have had past anxiety problems, but I’ve been on Zoloft to treat it, and haven’t had any attacks since I started it over a year ago.
I tried taking Buspirone which normally calms me down, but it only made my breathing more labored. I’ve tried to be unconcerned, but I’ve never had a constant anxiety attack and trouble breathing at all times of the day, and since I’m 3 months post-partum, I’m wondering if it might be a pulmonary embolism? I had some unexplained pain in my left calf muscle about 6 weeks after giving birth, but it went away after an hour or so, and I’ve had no issues other than the current problems.
I took a trip to the ER last night and the did a D-Dimer test and a chest X-ray, but I’m worried that it isn’t enough to completey rule out a problem? Any help would be great!
I was under the impression that a chest x-ray often misses signs of PE and a CT scan is much more effective. Should I contact the internal medicine speiclaist I was referred to tomorrow? I called my OB, but they told me to go to the ER if I was having those sypmtoms…which I’ve already done.
I’d like to not have to wait until some sort of awful symptoms show up.
Tagged with: anxiety attack • anxiety problems • buspirone • calf muscle • chest tightness pain • chest x ray • ct scan • d dimer test • giving birth • internal medicine • medicine • pulmonary embolism • shortness of breath • signs • suffering from • trouble breathing • unexplained pain • zoloft
Filed under: anxiety attacks causes
Most likely an embolism would be detected on X-Ray, also they are associated with hematopytsis (spitting up of blood). I would assume that at the ER they hooked up a PulseOx which would have shown some kind of saturation defect, that would be refractory to oxygen therapy.
Without more information I really can’t say much more, other than it may have a cardiac source. Stressful history may have had strain on your heart, and since the lungs and heart are so closely related some problems could be missed because they were looking in the wrong location.
A few things that would help get a better clinical picture would be a EKG, Pulse Ox Reading, ABG, and actual patient interview.
Since they did not detect anything does not mean there is not a problem, any chest pain should be treated seriously, even if it is not an embolism.
I am just a student, and do not have much information which I would like to have to really rule anything out, but I would doubt that it is a embolism. I would research Zoloft side effects, as it may have cardiac effects, or have a shifting metabolism.
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It is true that a CT would pick up the embolism more clearly, and a bronchography would be even more effective than that, but the X-ray is the standard until you start showing more signs of somthing like that.
The problems with CT is it is more expensive than the X-ray and so is resirved for those with more evidance of it’s need. The problem with Bronchography, is it is no longer standard medical pratice because most are taught to look for problems on Chest X-rays, or CTs. So it faded from usefulness and then removed from standard medical tests.
As I said before a Arterial Blood Gas would be useful, and while they are drawing that they could check your blood for elevated levels of medication. The problem with this is it is painful to do, and most patients like to avoid it if at all possible. I would suggest that you try to get some one to hook you up to a EKG and read the results, b/c it is one of the least invasive tests and could give some more information about what is going on. Also getting your blood pressure read would be benificial, although with the history of stress intollerance a normal blood pressure might not be expected.
I would keep contacting people until you get this resolved, but until there is conclusive results just try to relax, as additional stress will do nothing to help.
Well I tried spell checker, but it is not working, it is 4:49 in the morning so please for give any errors.
are your feet swollen? I was in the hospital with serious complications after having my baby and my feet were still swollen post partum, i had the shortness of breath and they suspected PE so i had an ultrasound of my leg done along with chest x rays. You should probably do the same.
If your still worried, get another doctor. Doctors arn’t always right. If your not satisfied with what your doctor has told you ,then get another one. You could be right, could really be something really wrong. Its your life, not theirs. They only want the money. So stand up for your life!