Blood clots

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting, I'm usually a lurker looking for information but haven't seen a lot on this topic. I was diagnosed with Stage II, Triple Negative BC last September, had a lumpectomy and node biopsy shortly after diagnosis, no node involvement. I began the usual chemotherapy after lumpectomy; four rounds of adriamycin, four rounds of taxol. After the first round of taxol I had pretty severe shortness of breath and weakness which progressed for five weeks until an echocardiogram was done. Short story, they discovered by CT scan two clots pressing against my heart, multiple small clots in my lungs, and three clots in my ankles. A catheter was put in my neck to dissolve the clots on my heart, I was on heparin IV while in the hospital and then switched to subq blood thinner twice a day which I currently do at home.

It was only after this episode that I found out some cancers and their treatments are higher risk for clots. I also have a family history or clots (mother and uncle), so I believe this was just a perfect storm for me. I do remember my oncologist asking about family history of clots at the beginning of my BC diagnosis but for some reason she dismissed this as not significant and never provided information on clot possibilities. Although I have some thoughts about this, it is not the reason for my post.

My main concern is that I can find little information on how this might affect one's prognosis for the future. They told me the clots will likely never go away but should be managed by the blood thinner which I may be on for life. What I've read says that cancer patients with clots have a poorer prognosis and clots are the second leading cause of death in cancer patients other than the cancer itself. What it doesn't say is if these deaths occurred while people were on blood thinner or prior to diagnosis of the clots. I worry that with so many clots I had, one will slip away to my heart or brain.

They also say clots are more prevalent in people with already metastic cancers. Could this mean I have cancer in other parts of my body that I'm not aware of yet ? The CT scan showed no new tumors in my lungs or abdominal area.

I had my last infusion a week ago and will see my oncologist in April for follow up and will ask her these questions but in the meantime I'm interested to hear what other peoples experience and knowledge about this kind of thing is. Yes, I'm a little worried. Every time my breath is a little short, or my pulse oxygen dips I think, is this it, did a clot slip through ?

I appreciate your feedback. ❤