Patient Stories

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…

I had my youngest son on December 26, 2019 via C-section. Recovery at home wasn’t too bad outside of the normal pain from having a baby.  At about a month postpartum, I began to have chest pain and found it hard to do simple tasks. I ignored the pain and convinced myself it was just…

My dad had deep vein thrombosis (DVT) many years ago and was diagnosed with factor V Leiden. Because of this, I was tested and found to have inherited this mutation as well. Thanks, Dad.   In 2019, my calf was swollen and painful. The doctor sent me to get an ultrasound. It was a DVT. After…

In the summer of 2019, I was on vacation with my family at Hilton Head Island. On the second night of the trip, I felt an excruciating pain in my chest while lying in bed. Although it was troubling, I decided not to wake my wife or take other action, and the pain passed after…

In 2018, when I was 21 years old and just over three months postpartum, I was diagnosed with multiple pulmonary emboli (PE). I started having trouble breathing in the early evening which I assumed was just my asthma acting up. This continued all through the night and into the morning. I was using my asthma…

I had COVID for the first time in November of 2020. My symptoms were typical: fatigue, loss of appetite, and shortness of breath.    Once I recovered, I had ongoing yet mild shortness of breath, so when it started happening more frequently, I wrote it off as just a symptom of long COVID. Looking back, I…

After a business trip to France followed by a week of mild COVID symptoms, I was eager to get back into my routine. That is, until I started feeling a strange pain in my leg about three weeks later.   I’d recently had a dermatological procedure on that leg, so I thought my stitches might be…

June 2021 was the month my life was flipped upside down. I started experiencing intense pressure in my head and a sharp pain in my neck and shoulder that radiated down my arm.    I visited my primary care doctor and an urgent care center, where I was prescribed muscle relaxers, a steroid, and was set…

In March 2022, while going about my everyday activities, I suddenly experienced extreme breathlessness. It felt like someone had hit me, and my heart was beating out of my chest.    I’m a single parent, and my then –7-year-old found me on the bed. There was no ambulance available to get to me; I was told…

In December of 2022, I had surgery on my femur. Five days later, I felt an excruciating pain in my calf and knew something was wrong. I went to the ER and was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that occluded almost my whole leg. I was prescribed  blood thinners and I’ve been taking them…