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Warning Signs

By Tara Rack-Amber trackamber@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read

I am a lucky person.

Just like a lot of people, I am lucky because I have a wonderful network of family and friends; I have a roof over my head; plenty to eat and a lot of luxuries that life can afford.

It wasn’t until this past summer that I realized how lucky I am.

For about four weeks I had been feeling sluggish and unmotivated. I just chalked it up to chasing after an 8-month-old, and the daily stresses of life.

One day while playing with my daughter Lily on the floor of her nursery, I held her while I stood up off the floor. This, I realize, was a very stupid thing knowing that she weighs at least 20 pounds.

I immediately felt a pain in my left leg behind my knee. Thinking nothing of it, I decided to go on with everyday life.

Later that week, the pain was still there and my leg and ankle were swollen. This is nothing new considering this leg and ankle swell every summer, while my right leg stays pretty much the same.

We decided to press on with our weekend plans to take Lily to her first amusement park so she could go on her first amusement park ride: the carousel. During our outing, I had to frequently take breaks on a park bench because I was out of breath and tired. Once again, I thought the heat and the humidity were the causes for my breaks.

As the weekend ended and Tuesday rolled around, my mom had convinced me to go to my doctor about my leg. The pain was still there and the swelling was getting worse. After putting up a little fight saying I was fine, I finally gave in. I thought that the doctor would say it was a pulled muscle, and I might get a massage out of it. No big deal.

I could not have been more wrong.

When I went to my appointment, my doctor looked at my leg and said two words that I never would have expected: blood clot, which occurs when the blood coagulates and clots in the vein.

Still in denial and insisting it was just a pulled muscle because I didn’t show the classic symptoms of a blood clot (really red skin, hot to the touch and immense pain) I went up there to get the test done anyway.

After the test was finished I was told to wait at the hospital for the results. When a nurse came toward me pushing a wheelchair, my heart sank.

It turns out my doctor was right. It was a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or a blood clot that was deep in my leg and I need to go right away to the emergency room.

I was so scared. I was fighting back tears and a panic attack. My dad was calling my mom and husband so they could come up to the hospital with Lily.

I ended up spending two days at the hospital where I was injected with medication to help my blood break down the clot. When I went home I had to continue the injections, over 21 of them, and will continue to be on blood thinning medication for about six months.

When I say I am lucky, I mean things could have been worse.

If I had not listened to my mother and ignored my symptoms, one of the clots could have broken off, traveled to my lungs or my brain, caused a stroke or worse.

I am sharing my story to urge you to be diligent about your health. Don’t ignore symptoms. If you don’t feel right, for any reason, go and see your doctor.

All those times I was tired and out of breath was a warning from my body that something was not right.

Also, don’t think you are too young to have something like this happen to you. I am only 31, which I try and convince myself isn’t old, and blood clots are becoming more common in younger people, especially those who are athletic, run a lot and are frequent travelers.

So the moral of this story is to listen to your body, or your mother.

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