On April 4, 2025, I awoke around 4:30 a.m. with the worst charley horse under my left breast, wrapping around to my back and up my arm.
I went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with abdominal pain and sent home with naproxen. Two days later, I returned to the ER with worsening pain radiating to my right side. Once again, I received a diagnosis of abdominal pain and was sent home.
Three weeks later, I saw my primary doctor, who ran a few tests that came back abnormal. I was referred to gynecology. On May 18, I felt a sudden pain in the right side of my back, so I went back to the ER. This time, I was diagnosed with “possible pneumonia,” sent home, and told to follow up with my primary doctor.
Having experienced my first pulmonary embolism in 2000, I felt the same as I did that day all those years before, so I listened to my body and begged for answers.
On May 18, I started coughing up blood. I called my hematologist, who immediately had me come to her office. I told her that I thought I had another pulmonary embolism and that I believed I was misdiagnosed with pneumonia.
She sent me back to the ER for a CT scan with contrast. I was admitted to the hospital on May 19, 2025 with multiple pulmonary emboli in my right lung, along with a pulmonary infarction (lung tissue damage caused by the blocked blood flow).
In terms of risk factors, I have factor V Leiden (heterozygous). Three siblings and several cousins also have this mutation.
My advice to others is to listen to your body because you are the one who lives in it. Be consistent and don’t lose hope.
