Woman

In 2011, I became pregnant with my fourth child and went in for what I thought would be a normal 8–12-week doctor’s visit, but instead they told me that I was having a miscarriage. This was confusing and devastating news that was challenging to process. I could not understand why I was having a miscarriage…

In 2017, at 21 years old, I was undergoing my third surgery on my left knee after I had torn my ACL and meniscus playing college basketball. I was back on the court a few short weeks later, but felt that my hamstring was unusually tight. This didn’t seem right to me, so I decided…

I had my first blood clot when I was 24 years old after ACL reconstruction surgery — a risk factor for blood clots that I was unaware of. After my surgery, I noticed that my arm was warm, swollen, and red, all signs of blood clots. I knew something was off, and decided to go…

I had my first pulmonary embolism (PE) at the age of 30. My symptoms began with prolonged shortness of breath for about six weeks. There were many days when I woke up unable to breathe. I disregarded this symptom because I assumed I was just out of shape. However, my shortness of breath got progressively…

In December 2013, I joined a local gym after just moving to a new area. I spent a lot of time doing group classes and walking on the treadmill. One day while I was walking, I looked down and noticed some swelling in my lower left leg. I figured the swelling was just from the…

In September of 2020 at the age of 21, I was pregnant with my son during what appeared to be a perfectly normal pregnancy. Thankfully, I delivered a healthy baby boy. But just two days later, I began experiencing significant swelling in my left leg. I knew it was normal for pregnant women to retain…

In July 2019, I began experiencing shortness of breath on a regular basis, even if I was simply walking from the kitchen to the living room. I thought it was just a sign of aging, since I was 67 years old at the time. However, it progressed to the point that one day I suddenly…

I am 18 years old and during November 2020 I contracted COVID-19. A few months later, I started having pain in my leg and I found it difficult to breathe. My mom took me to the doctor and they told me it was just anxiety. But three days later, I convinced my mom that something…

In February 2021, at 28 years old, I was diagnosed with a 5.5- inch blood clot in my left vena cava. I was admitted to the hospital and the images revealed that the clot had been present and developing for more than a year and a half! I also underwent knee surgery one month prior…

The morning of November 14, 2019 I fell in my bathroom and hit my head on the bathtub. I was unconscious, lying in a pool of blood, until I finally gained some life and crawled to call 9-1-1. When the medics arrived, I was barely able to breathe and went into cardiac arrest three times.…