I was three weeks away from turning 18 and I was working in checkout in a supermarket when I got what felt like a cramp in my left calf. My family told me to try drinking salt water, but after three days, I woke up with my left leg doubled in size, looking purple, and painful.
I got a doctor’s appointment that day and they immediately sent me to the hospital, where I was told I had a blood clot traveling from my ankle to hip (deep vein thrombosis). I remember them telling me another day later that it would have traveled to my lung (pulmonary embolism). A combination of sitting for a length of time and estrogen-based contraceptive pills were the likely causes.
Eventually, I was diagnosed with factor V Leiden heterozygous. I was on warfarin for a year with weekly blood tests. I could not have alcohol on my 18th birthday (the legal drinking age in the UK), and now age 40 I still require injections for flying and compression socks. I was also on two injections daily for almost a year throughout pregnancy and the weeks after.
My advice to others is: Don’t dismiss pain.
