Woman

I was 23 years old in 2013, and I was a healthy individual who was very physically active, running, and going to the gym preparing for boot camp. It was July and two months before I was scheduled to leave for basic training to fulfill my Navy Corpsman contract that I had signed seven months…

In April 2013, I traveled to Japan to visit my brother, and then to California to visit my grandfather. When I got home from my two-week vacation, I woke up one morning with a shooting pain in my leg. I thought perhaps I slept wrong or I wore the wrong shoes at work the previous…

I always thought of myself as person who wears many cape: a mom, a wife, and a friend. I was always on the go, shuffling my oldest child to high school and a job, taking both younger kids everywhere with me, while doing errands for myself, the house, the school, our brewery and at the…

On January 4, 2010, I had just given birth to my first child at the age of 20. It was an emergency C-section that I was not planning on. The next day, I was having a hard time breathing, and I informed the nurses about this. They told me it was normal pain from birth…

In December 2015, I was a 32-year-old newlywed and my life seemed perfect. Three months earlier, Brian and I had our dream wedding in Sonoma, CA, and were planning our first Christmas together as Mr. and Mrs. Since we went home to the Midwest to visit our families over Thanksgiving, we decided to take a trip…

On Sunday, August 9, 2015, after two weeks of pain in my right leg that felt like a strained muscle, I finally went to an urgent care facility. The doctor looked at my calf and stated that it should not have been swollen for two weeks from a muscle strain. She was very clear that…

I am only 18 years old, and it has been a month since I was diagnosed with an extensive blood clot (deep vein thrombosis or DVT) in my left leg. It first started when I felt some soreness in my leg one day. Not having any education about blood clots, I just thought I had…

I was healthy 39-year-old female, who had been married for almost a year with an 11-year-old daughter when I experienced stomach pains, diarrhea, and vomiting that concerned me. I called the doctor’s office two times in about four days, and both times, I was told I had a stomach virus and sent home. I will…

I am an avid recreational bicyclist. At the age of 51, I attempted my first multi-day bicycle tour. A couple of days after the six-day tour, I noticed a sharp pain in my left calf. It didn’t feel like a muscle pull. Honestly, it felt like a blood clot, but there was no redness and no…

I have always heard it said, “pain is weakness leaving the body,” and as a Marine, I’ve always been one to push my limits, but nothing could prepare me for what was to come. I found enjoyment in long distance runs long after I completed my time in the Marine Corps and trained for marathons.…