Well Nicolette, where in the world did you come up with the notion that you have a pulmonary embolism?

Your symptoms also describe a dozen or more other serious conditions, so let's hope that you don't have those as well. My point is that many patients base the origin of their symptoms upon limited knowledge that they consume initially to try and reduce fears, only afterwords do they realize that a little knowledge becomes a razor-sharp conflict.

It's very critical to realize that when you read medical information, it's scope is extremely limited due to the vast amount of background medical information that underlies illness and disease which cannot be redundantly imposed upon every article of such content. Anyone reading these exposays is capable of wondering whether their symptoms are similar.

First and foremost, you had anxiety and palpitations prior to this illness, which by your description sounds a good deal like an upper respiratory infection from which coughing produced sputum streaked with blood as a consequence of strain. Some pneumonias can also cause this condition. The anxiety and apprehension described as symptoms of PE arise as unfamiliar sensations to the patient.

Secondly, most all pulmonary embolisms arise from clots elsewhere in the body that have traveled to the lung and become lodged in vessels too small for them to continue traveling. The vessel can burst, causing bleeding wherein patients can cough up the clot and free blood. A pulmonary infarct can also occur that creates inexorable pain from the death of lung tissue being deprived of blood. If you had been complaining to your doctor that you had deep pain in a leg calf or a history of clot formation, I'd be more apt to listen, but PE just doesn't arise and present itself as such, rather it does so as the consequence of an underlying problem whose symptoms are omnipresent.

If you've never observed first-hand a process like this taking place, then doing so would greatly diminish your fears that you have the condition. The associated pain is not just an ache or minimal piercing jab, but intractable pain on most occasions that often requires intervention to settle the patient.

Pleural pain subsequent to respiratory infection is extremely common due to the muscles suffering strain and insult from constant coughing. It can be very irritating to tissues already suffering from an infectious agent.

You're going to be fine and it can take up to several weeks before the symptoms fully resolve. If you continue to experience a shortness of breath and or cough up blood, then it's simply a requisite that you appear before your physician who will likely take a plain film x-ray of your lungs to rule out the presence of a pneumonia, which will be treated with antibiotics. In the absence of fever and productive cough, you're likely on the route to recovery.

Please explain the rationale for taking Xanax(XR), Lithium, Lamictal and Lunesta. This is a pretty serious cocktail and would make me wonder what we're hoping to achieve with such combination therapy.

Best regards and Good Health