In September 2022, a couple of weeks after undergoing an emergency appendectomy, I was woken up by an intense pain in my knee. It lasted a few minutes and then I went back to sleep.
A few days later, the pain came back and spread to my thigh, and I could not put weight on it. I thought I strained it without noticing.
In the weeks before the my appendectomy, I had given birth and I also had COVID-19 shortly thereafter. I attributed my pain and exhaustion to sleepless nights with a newborn and recovery.
I woke up another night with this feeling of doom and a gut feeling that something life-threatening was happening to me. The following morning, I had a deep pain in my chest, difficulty breathing, and felt faint.
My mother called 9-1-1 and I was taken to a nearby hospital where I was diagnosed with a large DVT and bilateral pulmonary embolism. I spent a week in the hospital. I spent the next couple of months gaining strength to walk and breathe on my own again.
There was a point where I could barely walk or say a sentence without getting out of breath. Reading the stories of other survivors in this community have given me hope during my recovery.
I have learned that my road to recovery is a lifelong journey filled with trial and error. Keeping active and staying hydrated has been more important now more than ever.
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Hospitalization and Surgery
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COVID-19
