Gaslighting

I had an appointment with my PCP on October 5, 2019 for shortness of breath. I could barely walk to my car from his office door. My lower legs were hurting. I was 56 and on no medications. He referred me to a cardiologist. The following day, after my morning coffee, I could hardly walk.…

In April 2023, I had a spontaneous seizure at work. I was taken to the hospital and stayed for 10 days. On day 8, I had a lumbar puncture (also known as a spinal tap) to try and find the cause of the seizure. The following day, I woke up with an intense, sharp, left-sided…

After returning home from a weekend of skiing in Breckenridge, Colorado, I woke up with low back pain and pain in my chest on a Monday morning. I didn’t think much of it because it was normal for me to be sore after exercise, and I’ve always struggled with exercise-induced asthma as a lifelong Colorado…

Wednesday, January 18, 2023, will be a day I will never forget. It started as an ordinary day at home with my two children, Amelia, and Andre. My son Andre, who had just turned 3 a month before, had been sick for about a week. I had already taken him to the pediatrician just three…

In 2006, I was 31 years old, living in my home country of Venezuela, and 20 weeks pregnant with my first baby when I felt a pain like a knot in my left upper thigh. My mom suggested I keep my leg up the rest of the day and I could see my gynecologist in…

On July 31, 2021, after being misdiagnosed and sent home almost a week prior, I finally received a diagnosis that would forever change my life: sub-massive pulmonary emboli and pulmonary infarction. I call it “the back pain that saved my life.” My primary symptom was upper back tightness and discomfort, which I later learned was…

One week I was a healthy 24-year-old hiking mountains, the next I was bedridden in a hospital with an unprovoked 20cm DVT. I had an unusual cramping pain in my leg on a Friday night. I took some painkillers and decided to sleep it off. The next morning I felt okay and set off for…

I’m 43. My first DVT experience was at 19 years old while in college. Long story short, I was sent home by two different doctors over two months even though my leg was in excruciating pain and eventually could barely walk. The third doctor knew what was wrong with me within minutes and sent me…

I’ve always had a history of health anxiety, always expecting the worst whilst hoping for the best. It took many years for me to manage my fears and understand when I was being rational or otherwise. Toward the end of April 2024, I had this horrible chest pain, directly along the left side of my…

My family has an extensive history of DVTs and PEs leading up to my teen’s blood clotting episode. I have three grandparents with confirmed clots, one of whom had a filter placed. One of my parents and their sibling both had multiple clots. My teen had spinal fusion with rods for scoliosis, and because of…