What I thought was a regular day led to a nightmare.
The Vacation
My husband and I decided to go on vacation — a very short flight (1.5 hours) to Mexico.
During the flight, I felt the chills that wouldn’t go away, even once we arrived at our destination. I had to stand in the sunlight to try to get warm.
The Symptoms I Dismissed
From that night on, I developed a persistent cough that would last for 5 to 6 hours.
I also started to feel a pain in my lower-right leg, which my husband would rub for me each day.
Our first instinct was COVID, so I took 4 COVID tests — all were negative.
I called my sister, who is a doctor, and she told me, “Oh my gosh, Laura, you don’t even have a voice! You need to get home!”
Nevertheless, we stayed and I tried to just take it easy — I did not want to go to a hospital, there in Cabo.
Coming Home
We arrived home and I had this feeling of exhaustion and being out of breath.
Still, I unloaded my bags and just went to bed.
The next day, I went on with life as usual, telling myself I probably just have a cold.
The following day, I pushed through and convinced myself to go to my yoga class.
Yoga
At the yoga studio is when it all hit home for me.
During a typical session, I felt my heart rate jump to 150–160 BPM.
My normal heart rate is quite low — 54–55 BPM.
But I didn’t stop and simply pushed through it, as stupid as that may sound.
But when I jumped in the shower without any relief, I called my husband.
I told him, “I think I’m throwing clots,” to which he said, “What?!” and then took me to the emergency room.
The ER
I arrived in ER with jaw pain, a huge headache, chest tightness and shortness of breath.
The ER saw my troponin level was 3,000 (Troponin is a protein in the blood. Elevated levels show up when the heart muscle is injured or deprived of oxygen). An EKG showed that my heart was under strain as well.
Then they did an ultrasound. It showed 15 pulmonary embolisms!
The radiologist dropped everything, ran to my ER doctor, and got me to the ICU as fast as possible.
Nobody thought I would survive the night.
My heart showed heavy strain and it was enlarged. Both my lungs were full of clots.
I could hear the ER doctor start talking to my brother, who is a doctor as well…
…but I passed in and out of consciousness.
The Thrombectomy
Because of the urgency, they had to do an emergency thrombectomy while I was still wide awake.
As terrifying as that is, the surgeon was excellent and held my hand as I felt I was fading.
The pulmonologist, hematologist, cardiologist, and primary doctor all played a huge role as well.
This Could Have Been Caught Earlier
I did previously complain about the pain in my lower leg at my doctor’s office, but they said I looked great and didn’t need an ultrasound.
What was worrying was that there weren’t any huge risk factors that led to this: the flight to Mexico was relatively short and I tested negative for all genetic factors.
Perhaps one other possibility is a low-dose birth control I was on, but that was never confirmed to be the cause.
What I’ve Learned
Honestly I’ve learned to listen to my body and not be such a pusher like I usually am.
I constantly had the mentality like my mom — just push through life.
What I Want Others to Know
Please listen to your body.
Listen and don’t push too hard.
