Thrombectomy

I have always been an avid runner. In August 2024, I was training for my seventh marathon when I developed pain and swelling in my left leg. I thought I had strained my calf and did physical therapy, but I didn’t make any progress. I attempted the marathon but ultimately dropped out at mile 8…

It started on a Tuesday with mild lower back pain. I assumed that I’d strained something somehow. By Wednesday, the pain was slightly worse, and I felt weak, short of breath, and dizzy when standing—something definitely wasn’t right. By Friday, the pain spread to my left groin and down my left thigh. I convinced myself…

In January 2022, at 27 years old, I checked in to the hospital and was treated for a superficial clot in my right leg, along with a minor case of cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection. Over the next few months, the pains in my leg continued to the point where I could no longer walk.…

I wrapped my leg around a chair while walking by it on January 16, 2025 and fell. My right leg immediately bruised and swelled, so I went to the emergency room. X-rays showed a contusion to the bone. My leg was bandaged and I was sent on my way. As time wore on, my leg…

I went to the emergency room last year over what I thought was a blood clot in my leg. My D-dimer was elevated, but they still told me it was a pulled muscle and sent me home. So when I woke up in June 2024 and had the same pain in the same leg, I…

I was 19 years old and home from college. I got what we thought at the time was a stomach virus. My mom took me to the doctor, but the symptoms persisted. After about a week, she decided we needed to head to the emergency room. We when arrived, they informed us that my heart…

A week after I delivered my beautiful, Covid baby in August 2020, my identity as a lifelong runner changed forever. I was diagnosed with a DVT and admitted to a New Mexico hospital. I felt like my baby had been ripped from me. Covid visitation prevented my husband Dan or my baby from seeing me.…

It was the last day of our honeymoon. We were packing when I had a sudden onset of nausea, and I was also hot, dizzy, and out of breath. It felt like I was running a marathon every few feet I walked. But I was determined to enjoy our last day, so I took a…

On October 6, 2024, at 36 weeks pregnant, I found myself in the emergency department of the hospital where I began and ended my bedside nursing career. My shortness of breath and elevated heart rate, which could have easily been attributed to pregnancy itself, were soon discovered to be due to a submassive saddle pulmonary…

In April 2020, at the peak of COVID, I started experiencing pain in my lower back. During a walk with friends, a sharp pain would shoot down my right leg with every step. I tried to ignore the pain and continued the walk. Later that evening, my leg started to swell, and the pain got…