Patient Stories

At just 23 years old, I have suffered with not only a DVT (deep vein thrombosis or blood clot in the leg), but also a PE (pulmonary embolism or blood clot in the lung). I was taking estrogen-based birth control pills for two years when I had a visit with my primary care physician due…

At 32 years old, I had my meniscus repaired and a Fulkerson osteotomy (surgical procedure to restore knee stability) was performed to prolong the integrity of my knee. It was my fourth knee surgery and I expected everything to go according to plan. However, I found myself wondering, could this surgical procedure cause me to…

One spring morning in 2016, I woke up from a long, deep sleep in my California apartment. I turned on the morning Los Angeles news and saw that the musician Prince had died. I also simultaneously realized, in that moment, that I could not feel my toes in my right foot. I had been limping…

At 23 years old, I never thought I would be lying in a hospital bed surrounded by doctors who were baffled by one of the youngest cases of blood clots in the lung that they had ever seen. It was the summer of 2014, and my husband and I had just bought our first home…

One year ago, I was diagnosed with a massive blood clot in my lung. It occurred when I was away for the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend on a ski trip in New York. Early that weekend, on a Saturday, I had a minor fall getting off of the lifts. I injured both of…

March 2015 was the start of a health journey that would impact the rest of my life. Earlier that month, I was experiencing a slight, nagging pain in the back of my calf. After a few weeks of dealing with the symptoms, I made an appointment with my primary care doctor. Later that afternoon, I…

I am 19 years old right now, and in my second year of university. The school I attend is about 3.5 to 4 hours from home, so I live on my own with a few friends. In the beginning of November 2019, when I was still 18 years old, I started coughing a lot and…

When I was 19 years old, during the first week of my sophomore year of college, I awoke one morning with a strange, tight pain in my right shoulder. I assumed I had just slept on it funny, and continued about my day as usual. The pain didn’t seem to let up, even after I…

I was 41 years old when I was headed in for a right knee meniscus repair on September 25, 2019. I had a similar repair done on my left knee in June of 2016. As a machinist and mechanic, I have always had to rely on my knees to push through the days. The physical…

My two pregnancies were marked by dangerous blood clots – the first time when I was 23 weeks pregnant and the second time when I was 27 weeks pregnant. These were my first blood clots, which started in my leg as a deep vein thrombosis or DVT and moved from my ankle to my groin.…