DVT

I can still remember sitting alone in the emergency room sending funny selfies to my Mom. Why not? I lived in Pennsylvania and she was in North Dakota, and, of course, she was worried. I, on the other hand, was annoyed. Everything started with terrible lower left back pain that eventually moved to my left…

In 2005, I had severe uterine bleeding which lasted for 10 months. As a result, I was forced to have an emergency hysterectomy. In an effort to try to stop the bleeding, I was encouraged to take high doses of estrogen-based birth control pills. Two days before my surgery, I was also given two shots of estrogen-based…

Sarah was a full-time college student when doctors discovered a blood clot in her abdomen that blocked almost all of her collateral veins and produced swelling and pain in her leg. They thought the clot was covering her inferior vena cava, but after she had surgery to remove the clot, they realized her inferior vena cava was completely …

I’m in my mid-twenties and very active. When I experienced calf pain for about two weeks, I attributed it to a strain from uphill running and other cardio and weightlifting workouts. Towards the end of two weeks, I couldn’t ignore the pain. I decided to pop into a nearby physical therapist’s office. I explained my…

In June 2011, 16 weeks after giving birth to my first child, I started having symptoms of back pain. As a  23-year-old new mother, I diagnosed myself with all sorts of things. I decided that the pain I was experiencing must be my kidneys reacting to alcohol after such a long time without any, and…

For all of my life, I have struggled with my weight. When I was 23 and 346 pounds, I decided to get gastric bypass surgery. That is when my nightmare started.  After the surgery, I followed my doctor’s orders to walk as much as possible. However, I started experiencing chest pain about a week later…

After three and a half years, I am ready to share my story about blood clots and pulmonary emboli. My story is tied to my godson, Paul Englert Jr., who unfortunately did not have the same outcome as me. Almost four years ago, he lost his life to a pulmonary embolism at just 19 years…

I am a true testament to the fact that a blood clot or blood clotting disorder can affect anyone. As a healthy 14-year-old boy, blood clots had never even crossed my mind. My story begins on Christmas Eve in 2016. I was having trouble walking, and my leg was swollen. I was paranoid about it,…

My name is Pat, and I am a professional fireman in Iowa. In January of 2008 – after fighting a house fire in subzero temperatures – I got off shift and later that day I was having trouble breathing. I checked my vitals and saw that my oxygen saturation was low, so I went to…

I was just recently diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in my left leg, and acute pulmonary emboli (PE) in my lungs. It all began in early March of 2017, with an unexplained persistent cough. Shortly thereafter, I began to also have shortness of breath. I thought I was developing asthma. Although I initially ignored…