Surgery

In 2020, I awoke after a cardiac catheterization procedure to find my right leg swollen and discolored. I asked the nurse to contact my physician, but was informed the symptoms I was experiencing were normal. After four hours of lying flat, I continued to bleed from my incision site. Despite the immense pain that radiated…

When I was 34 weeks pregnant and 25 years old, I started experiencing pain in my left calf. Being a nurse, I started to question when I should be concerned about the pain. I reached out to my obstetrician and was advised to drink more water and walk more often. The following weekend, I traveled…

I had my son via C-section in April 2023. During my pregnancy, doctors said my leg pain was sciatica. After having my son, I was having severe headaches, and the pain medicine I was given didn’t help. A week later, I had three seizures. After the first seizure, we went to a local hospital. They…

In February 2019, I had surgery to remove a benign bone tumor in my sacrum, a triangular bone that connects the spine to the pelvis. An IV was placed in my right arm prior to the procedure, but I noticed they had switched the IV site to my left arm when I woke up from…

I had given birth via C-section, and my daughter was sent to the neonatal intensive care unit at a different hospital. My legs were swollen for a couple of days after giving birth, but I figured it was normal since they pumped me with so many fluids when I was in labor and delivery. Six…

I am a trail runner, CrossFitter, MMA/jiu jitsu player, and mountaineer. I trained hard, ate clean, and slept enough so that I could maximize both my performance and longevity.  I was a hybrid athlete balancing strength and endurance. Then I twisted my knee at jiu jitsu camp. I needed a meniscus repair, which caused massive…

In 2016 I had surgery after tearing my Achilles during a work softball game. My doctor told me I could return to work after two weeks, so I did. The first week went as smoothly as could be and used a knee roller. By the following week, I was having a hard time catching my…

I broke my left leg in eight places and had three surgeries within a three-week period. I was in a wheelchair and could not walk at all. Whenever I tried to stand and get upright, I’d feel an excruciating pain behind my left knee. It hurt as much as the 48 staples and cuts on…

On October 7, 2020, a vein burst in my leg. At the ER, they ran no tests. They told me the vein looked like cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection, and sent me home with an antibiotic. They said if the red area got bigger, I should come back. I went back on the 11th and…

In February 2018, three days after emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder, I had a really bad pain in my right calf and was having difficulty breathing. So, I went to the emergency room, and I was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or a blood clot in the right leg, and bilateral pulmonary embolism…