International

I woke at about 3 a.m. with the most intense stabbing pain in the right-hand side of my chest, towards the back. I assumed that I had slept funny and that I had simply trapped a nerve or something. The pain was unbelievable, though. I took acetaminophen but it did nothing. At 8 a.m., the…

I had a bad case of the flu last December. However, I am a primary school teacher and a workaholic, so I did very little about it and carried on going to work. On the last Friday before Christmas, I woke up at 4 a.m. gasping for breath. My chest was extremely tight, and I…

I remember going for a walk with my 10-month-old daughter the day I first felt the pain. I thought I’d pulled a muscle in my shoulder while pushing a heavy pram up a steep hill. Over a few days, the dull, sharp pain became worse. It felt like it was wrapping around my shoulder and…

I was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in 2013 as a side effect of steroids I was taking for nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder. I was on warfarin for two years until my doctor advised me to stop taking it. In March 2023, I had sudden pain in my left leg that was the worst…

I am a 48-year-old male and in March 2023, I was diagnosed with a blood clot spanning from my lower right calf up to the pelvic area.   This was the result of a meniscus procedure I had done on my right knee approximately four weeks earlier. The first symptoms I experienced were tightness, swelling,…

I was 21 years old when I began experiencing cramps, pain, and a burning sensation in my left calf. I visited multiple providers, who told me my symptoms might be due to a deficiency.   But I woke up one morning and couldn’t stand up. I had a shooting pain from my left groin to my…

In 2016, while on duty as a firefighter, I experienced pain behind my knee and swelling in my right leg. A couple of weeks earlier, while playing with my children, I also experienced what I could only describe as a “shaken fizzy can opening feeling” in my chest that went after a minute or two.  …

I was 24 weeks pregnant when I learned I developed a bilateral pulmonary embolism (PE). I had been suffering from shortness of breath but had no other symptoms. Blood clots aren’t in the family, and I am young, fit and healthy, so my midwife was certain I wouldn’t have this condition.   She referred me…

On January 1, 2002, I woke up feeling like I had a weight on my foot and was dragging my leg. As the morning went on, my leg felt like it was double the size of my right, and I was in pain. My husband took me to the emergency room.   The doctor believed I…

At the beginning of 2022, when I was 18, I started feeling pain in my chest. Since I was a professional triathlete preparing for the next season’s races, this pain was negatively affecting my training. I ignored the pain and difficulty breathing and pushed myself harder.    However, one night I woke up with extreme pain…