Health Is No Joke

About seven or eight years ago I had suffered a blood clot in the lower left area of my body. I had always been one to brush off pains, seeing as I had been living life partying and playing music. I had become ill and spent a couple days in bed not knowing about the clot that had formed. A good part of those couple of days was spent sleeping. Once I had awoken, I actually felt very refreshed. I did notice an odd feeling in my left leg, but, I figured it was a case of my leg being asleep from resting for so long. As I sat up in bed and began to lift myself up to stand, I almost fell over, feeling a sharp jolt spring from my left hip, up into my body. I figured it could have been a strain, or maybe moved wrong while I was resting. Four days had passed, and the pain had not gotten any better. And the feeling of my leg being asleep had become a feeling of great pain as I tried to hobble around. So, off to the emergency room I went. Upon arrival, the nurses at the triage had already noted my movements. They sat me down and asked the normal questions. After speaking with a colleague, the nurse that was taking my information had told me to follow her behind right away. Now, if anyone had spent any time at all in this particular emergency room, they’d know that on any normal night, you’d be waiting hours to be seen. Once I was placed in a bed after gowning up, I laid there hoping it wasn’t something too severe and that they were just taking extra precautions. But, as time went on, I sort of got the idea that I was going to be there for a while. Later on that night, after tests had been done, I was told that I would most likely be transferred to the bigger hospital. The next day, I was anxious to get things all over with, having gotten little to no sleep due to the pain. I went through more tests, given some more pain relief via intravenous and was given something to help me rest. After an ambulance ride to the bigger hospital, I was wheeled up to a higher floor in a room that had several beds. Two or three beds had been occupied by elderly women. They didn’t have much to say other than the occasional banter about whatever they had been watching on the TV. A heart and blood specialist and about four medical students had visited me. I was asked if I had visited any foreign countries, and was told that one of the lung scans showed images of microscopic specs in my lungs. I was alarmed at first, but they weren’t too worried about them. They said it was possible that I had inhaled dry-air particles while spending time in Texas. They were more concerned about what showed up on the MRI of my body, and had told me that it was a clot the diameter of a dime that had formed due to a vein overlapping an artery. But, they didn’t know why at that time. I was told that I would undergo a procedure where they insert a fair sized tube into the veins, so they can properly treat the clot. After having the procedure, I was sent up to the ICU to be looked after accordingly until they would confirm that the clot had been broken down. It turns out that I have a genetic form of blood disorder called Factor V Leiden. It causes the blood cells to be extra sticky, causing the risk of blood clots to form. I had spent eight nights in the hospital and now have blood thinners and blood pressure medications to take for life Never take your health for granted!