On March 11, 2021 I woke around 2 a.m. to use the restroom and I suddenly couldn’t see. I realized my night shirt was over my eyes and I was upside down. I had passed out. I sat on the floor with a leg on each side of the toilet and tried to figure out what happened.
Within seconds, my left leg began to fall asleep. I knew I needed to get up and back to bed, so I began hitting my leg. It started to wake up, but the right leg began to fall asleep. I was hitting my right leg when my husband came to find out what was going on. I asked him to come in and help me, and in less than a minute the pain was so bad I screamed, “Call 9-1-1!”
They arrived quickly, but I couldn’t explain what happened. In the ambulance they discussed whether I was on drugs, believing I was too erratic. The ambulance doors opened and they told me I was going to get help. The only words I could form were “God please help me,” then I passed out.
I learned the rest of my story after waking from a coma a few weeks later. They located a blood clot in my right leg (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT) and performed surgery, but something went wrong. I had a pulmonary embolism (PE) and went into cardiac arrest twice.
The hospital called my husband and mom late that evening to tell them that they needed to come say their final goodbyes. I was not expected to make it to the next morning because of internal bleeding. But the next morning, a team of doctors found the reason I was bleeding.
I was opened from just below my chest to the bottom of my stomach and remained on life support for four days. I had surgery to remove my left leg above the knee, and I am now an amputee.
My only risk factor was that I was on hormonal birth control. I’m now disabled as an amputee and everything in my life has changed. Please be cautious about birth control.
Resources
Blood Clots and Birth Control
Signs and Symptoms of Blood Clots
Facebook Support Group
