Birth control

I took what I thought was a routine flight to visit my family in Florida in October 2009.  My leg had been bothering me a little before the flight, due to chronic Achilles tendonitis.  When I got off the plane in Florida, my leg seemed stiffer than usual.  The flight was uneventful, and since it…

I noticed that I had severe cramping in my right calf in 2003, and ended up in the hospital for a deep vein thrombosis (DVT).  The birth control pills I was taking then were the likely culprit, and I know now at age 51 to avoid hormone based birth control or replacement therapy in the…

I was 30 years old and 6 months pregnant with my first child when I developed an acute deep vein thrombosis (DVT).  I had no prior knowledge of clotting disorders and had been on birth control for 10 years before I conceived.   It was a Thursday night when I first felt a tingling and slight…

I am a married 39 year old mother of two.  A year ago my busy life was put on hold when I developed a blood clot in the renal vein of my left kidney.  I started feeling dull pain in my lower back at work, and I felt winded and tired.   I work full time…

My family and I had just returned from a ski trip to New Mexico in January 2009, and it was one of those marathon trips where we drove straight through for 11 hours. My legs felt heavy during the trip, and even though we did not make a lot of stops, I kept moving them…

Anna Frutiger embodied brains, beauty, compassion, and athleticism, and seemed the picture of health while she was living her dream of becoming a dentist. No one expected that a blood clot would end her life, and it seemed beyond belief that Anna died on May 20, 2010 from a pulmonary embolism (PE) due to an…

Running is my greatest passion, but at age 27 it nearly cost me my life.  Last March, I ran a half-marathon and went straight into training for a full marathon.  I noticed a pain in my hip after I completed the half-marathon, but like most runners, I ran through the pain.  As it turned out,…

My story begins after I lost my dog, Lakota, from sudden internal bleeding, who was my pet and wonderful friend for 12 years.  I was so upset at my loss that I wept for many hours; the type of weeping that caused my chest to heave.  Later that night, I had severe cramping along the…

Caroline experienced debilitating blood clots two separate times in her life, but she’s not letting that stop her. Read about how she overcame her pain and lives her life to the fullest everyday, despite being on anticoagulants.

I consider myself a healthy 47 year old woman.  I exercise daily, eat healthy food choices, and am a non-smoker. In April 2011, I felt stabbing pains in my back on the right hand side under my rib cage, and the pain got worse every time I took a breath.  My husband drove me to…