My story started about 10 years ago, at the age of 23, when I ended up in the emergency room with a massive unexplainable migraine headache. After doing a CT scan, the doctors confirmed that I had a blood clot in my brain.
At the time, I was prescribed an anticoagulation medicine that, after four years, I was told I no longer needed to take. I was extremely happy to be off the medication, and thought I could now finally live a normal life.
Years later, at age 30, when I was pregnant, our first baby was born still at 22 weeks due to a placental abruption. We tried again seven months later and this second baby was also sadly born still at 28 weeks due again to placental abruption, even though this time I had been advised to take one aspirin per day.
Having to go through all that pain again felt like the worst thing in the word, and then just seven weeks later tragedy struck again. After having trouble breathing, I was rushed to the emergency room and another CT scan confirmed that I had a pulmonary embolism or blood clot in my lung.
I am 33 years old now and my doctor says he is confident that I have antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), which increases my risk for dangerous clotting, given my clotting history over the past few years. I recently tested negative for APS, so some questions remain.
I am sharing my story to help people understand the impact clotting can have in pregnancy and childbirth and to help raise awareness about blood clots.
