Ana explains how her clotting experience turned chronic, she was diagnosed with CTEPH, and required heart surgery.
A few years ago, I was tested for bronchitis, same symptoms — shortness of breath, blue lips, constant fatigue and brain fog. After 75 blood tests, many, many scans, three hospital visits and three months of blood thinners to treat the clots they found and believe to have formed due to birth control…things just don’t seem to get better!
Typically, blood thinners can help break these clots up and stop new ones from forming. However, this didn’t hold true in my case. At month six, I was diagnosed with CTEPH or chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.
Because the clots turned chronic, open heart surgery was the only way to save my heart from failing. The valve on the right side of my heart was clogged, the six-inch clots in my lungs were cutting off most of my oxygen. Basically, I had no functioning left lung. Therefore, open heart surgery was the only way to save my heart from failing by removing these chronic clots. Being open to this gave me a second chance at life.
