Travel

As a former professional baseball pitcher, I have always been active. I continued my workouts over the years and tried to stay healthy. But my pride as an athlete in pushing through pain goes way back to my playing days. I even pitched seven innings with a fractured leg before I knew it was injured.…

I’m an artist, and I was editing and spending long hours working with few breaks. In addition, I didn’t get up on my last flight from Washington, DC to Los Angeles. Prior to traveling, I noticed swelling in one leg, but I ignored it. Upon my return, I took a one-mile walk that normally takes…

We had been traveling throughout the Great Smoky Mountains looking for our forever home. We got back home to Florida, and on Sept. 3, 2020 at 10 p.m. I walked less than 100 feet to put the garbage on the curb. I looked up at the night stars and thought about how God did such…

I was 23 years old and 40 weeks into a high-risk pregnancy. I was considered high risk because of a cyst cutting the circulation off to my right ovary, and I also had endometriosis. I had a C-section on August 17, 2020. After the surgery, I returned to my hospital room and cuddled up with…

My husband and I are both ultra runners. On June 27 of this year, we were both going for an early morning training run with him starting about five minutes behind me. I had been experiencing shortness of breath for a few weeks before this run. Little things, such as bringing groceries in from the…

I started becoming short of breath around Memorial Day weekend. I’d get winded walking from the parking garage at work to my desk, and walking from my apartment to my car.    Since I had COVID the month before, my doctor thought it could be long COVID and I was given an inhaler.    On June 16,…

I had just gotten over a cold where I was laid up in bed for a few days, so I went for a run to get back on the exercise train. Shortly into my run, I felt an odd pain in my chest and decided to cut it short. The pain worsened over the next…

I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in November 2017. I had a complete hysterectomy followed by the standard six rounds of chemotherapy, after which I had no evidence of disease until February 2021 when I had a recurrence.   I had to undergo six more rounds of chemo, and I also participated in a trial, but…

In September 2007, I had just started my freshman year of college. I had gotten a job at the bookstore, and on my first day, I passed out while folding T-shirts. I had never passed out before so I panicked, called my mom, and went to a local urgent care clinic.    After running a few…

My story is not that I had an extensive deep vein thrombosis (DVT), since this happens to so many of us. My story is that it took me five weeks and five doctors, plus one physical therapist to have my symptoms truly heard and diagnosed. I had even asked all the right questions and pursued…