I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of the moment that changed my life. I went home to Dallas (because the Pandemic was a little too stressful in LA) and instantly wasn't feeling too great. I was having super bad cramps and I felt like I had pulled my hamstring. I pushed through thinking it was fine and that I just pulled a muscle working out and it wasn't a big deal. Over the next few days, the pull kept getting worse to where I couldn't sleep and barley walk, so my mom decided to take take me to the doctor. I went in, my doctor was confused so she sent me to get a CT scan. Went to get the scan (which had me move a meeting and took 3 hours), but eventually I got the scan and went home. I pulled up to my house and ran in to get on my laptop (we had our weekly developer meeting) and right before I logged on I got a call from one of my doctors, in a panic, telling me in "doctor speak" that I had a blood clot going all the way down my left leg and needed to get to the ER immediately. My body kind of went into shock and adrenaline mode as I then called Ivana to tell her "I'm not going to be able to make the meeting, I have to go to the ER" and then had my mom go drop me off. At first my mom came and sat with me before being told by the ER that she couldn't stay due to us being in one of the peaks of COVID. I told all the ER receptionists and around 4 doctors/nurses that I saw what my doctor told me, but it still took 8 hours for me to be admitted. During that time, my leg started to swell and start turning purple to where I couldn't walk on it. It wasn't until they gave me an ultrasound to see how big the clot was that I "cheated death by around 2 days". 2 days and I would have had no idea. I knew nothing about blood clots, didn't know how they were treated or anything. I thought at one point they were going to have to amputate my leg because it was swelling so much and no one was doing anything. I was begging for morphine at one point, crying by the check in desk. At 11:30 that night, they drew my blood...again...gave me morphine and admitted me into the hospital. A surgeon came in at 11:45 to tell me that they were going to fit me in the next day between noon and 7 PM to get the clot out. I still had no idea what was really happening but I knew my leg still hurt. My surgeon then told me "yeah, pain killers aren't going to help, only an anti-inflammatory" which the nurse then gave me. I spent the next 3 days in the hospital, running on no sleep, being woken up for blood every two hours to be discharged quickly with a prescription of blood thinners and no other information but to schedule my follow up surgery for the next month. We obviously found out what caused the clot...birth control (which by the way they do not warn you about when you are put on the medication). But it through my life for a loop. In the 8 months following June 24th, 2020, I would see doctors about every week, get 4 rounds of iron infusions, have 2 more surgeries, get covid, be on blood thinners the whole time, but most importantly have my life changed. It led me through a journey of finding myself through the amazing people I talked too who had the same thing happen, one being my therapist, and reevaluating what I wanted my life to look like. I don't know where I would be now if I didn't have a blood clot last year, but I know that I liked where I ended up. ❤️
