pulmonary embolism!?!?!?!

[nervousbutterflies]

i am really scared because when i take a deep breath i get a pain in the left side of my chest under my left boob! i am really scared i have a pulmonary embolism because i just googled it and have all of the symptoms! My heart is racing alot when i touch my chest where the pain is i feel the pulse. I am 20 years old on the nuva ring which can cause blood clots i used to be a smoker but quit in january!

what should i do?
I do not want it to explode and i die in my sleep !

Did anyone ever have a blood clot and what did it feel like???

[leighs]

nervousbutterfiles...I've totally been there. I have actually felt a pain in my chest, Googled it, and of course pulmonary embolism came up. Once I saw that, I was scared and I ignored all of the other causes that were much more likely. I even thought how you did and how I smoked while taking birth control...even though I hadn't been on birth control in a long time. Trust me, I still have a lot of work to do when it comes to Google-ing symptoms. The bottom line is that it just makes it worse.
I ended up going to my Dr. because of my fear of my chest pain. She assured me it was because I was stressed and tense and that the muscles in my chest wall were tight from the anxiety. I then talked to my therapist about by pain, Google results and fear. He told me the next time I was feeling anxious to stop what I was doing, sit or lay down, and pay attention to every muscle in my body. I start from the top of my head and go all the way to my toes. I try to see if there is a muscle I can relax and if so, I relax it. 99% of the time when I do this, my chest is tight because I'm tense and contracting my muscles. The tenseness is just something that comes with the anxiety but it's up to us to un-tense and try to relax. I hope this helps. Try to relax and maybe do some mediation. I know it's hard when you're freaking out but it really will help and the anxiety will go away. You can beat this!

[birdman1967]

One cannot say with certainty that the chest pain is unfounded. If you are concerned, I will have to say to go to the ER and get checked out. I will say though that being a 20yr old female, the chances of you having a PE arent very high, but as with anything, there is a chance. Hope you feel better, and google is the devil.

[Frank Furter]

Chances are it's nothing but go get it checked to be sure.

[nervousbutterflies]

thankyou for all of the replies! i have to try and stop googling stuff. It does not help that i also have the webmd app on my phone and you type in all your symptoms and it gives you possible reasons for those symptoms! but the good news is my chest does not hurt today! I did not die in my sleep :) embolisms freak me out because the nurse that i work with, her husband had one that ruptured and he almost died and is lucky to be alive. It is scary because anyone could have one without even realizing then BOOM your dead!

[jessed03]

thankyou for all of the replies! i have to try and stop googling stuff.!

I'd do more than try, I'd block the thing from my computer if I were you hehe :)

But seriously, this is no exaggeration, I think I stopped 70% of my panic attacks once I stopped googling things. There are too many symptoms that fit into illness, for instance the symptom of a brain tumour; Headaches, nausea, fever. There isn't a person on the planet in perfect health that doesn't get these symptoms. Add that to the bizarre and unusual symptoms anxiety causes, and you have a recipe for disaster.

I know it's hard to stop, and tempting to always check things, which is why people say anxiety is like a drug. I eventually just thought; f**k this, I'm so exhausted with it, I'm just gonna leave everything alone, and if I get unusual symptoms that persist, I'll go see a medical expert about it.

I'm glad things have eased though!