Birth control

Anna Frutiger embodied brains, beauty, compassion, and athleticism, and seemed the picture of health while she was living her dream of becoming a dentist. No one expected that a blood clot would end her life, and it seemed beyond belief that Anna died on May 20, 2010 from a pulmonary embolism (PE) due to an…

Running is my greatest passion, but at age 27 it nearly cost me my life.  Last March, I ran a half-marathon and went straight into training for a full marathon.  I noticed a pain in my hip after I completed the half-marathon, but like most runners, I ran through the pain.  As it turned out,…

My story begins after I lost my dog, Lakota, from sudden internal bleeding, who was my pet and wonderful friend for 12 years.  I was so upset at my loss that I wept for many hours; the type of weeping that caused my chest to heave.  Later that night, I had severe cramping along the…

Caroline experienced debilitating blood clots two separate times in her life, but she’s not letting that stop her. Read about how she overcame her pain and lives her life to the fullest everyday, despite being on anticoagulants.

I consider myself a healthy 47 year old woman.  I exercise daily, eat healthy food choices, and am a non-smoker. In April 2011, I felt stabbing pains in my back on the right hand side under my rib cage, and the pain got worse every time I took a breath.  My husband drove me to…

Carmen McArthur’s story demonstrates the risk of blood clots associated with birth control pills.  Although the prescribing physician mentioned the risk, this patient did not think that she would be affected.  She chose the therapeutic benefit of the pills to treat heavy menstrual bleeding over what she perceived as minimal clotting …

My name is Kim Gronholz.  I am a 38 year old married mother of 3, an exercise addict, a former high school English teacher, a school/church volunteer, a stay-at-home mom, and most pertinently, a DVT/PE survivor! My husband and I had just returned home from a 5 day business/pleasure trip to Canada on a Sunday…

Today was a cool, brisk November day, and I decided to go visit Jessies’ Garden. I climbed from my car and walked the short distance to the spot where our journey ended two and a half years ago. We brought her here to her final resting-place while the bagpipes she loved played Amazing Grace. I…

I was logging more than 100 miles on my bicycle in any given week. So, at 46 years of age, it was not surprising that from time to time my legs ached. Why wouldn’t they? And that was exactly what I told my family physician when she warned me that my leg pain could be…

Katie was a junior in high school in 2007. Her periods were irregular and her doctor suggested that she begin taking birth control pill to regulate them.  We told her physician that her father had been diagnosed with factor V Leiden after a tiny stroke at age 39. We were told that this constituted a…