Amanda
My name is Amanda. I am 23 years old. The past year of my life has changed
everything. Back in Feburary I noticed some pain and swelling in my right
leg. My first instinct was that maybe I had pulled a muscle or something
but some how it just didn't seem right. I called my grandma who is a nurse
and she told me to come over immediately so she could look at my leg. After
work I drove over to her house. I was in a hurry because I had to get to
class because I had a paper due that night. The moment she looked at my
leg she said nothing but I think you need to go to the doctor as soon as
you can.
I saw my grandma on Wednesday and finally set up an appointment to see the
doctor that Friday. I was so scared when I went in. My heart was pounding
so fast. The nurse that took my pulse said I was a bit high. Two seconds
later the doctor was in. She took one look at my leg and then touched it.
She told me she needed blood work and that I was to go to the hospitol immediately
after that for an ultrasound. They did the ultrasound and then another doctor
came into the room. He told me there were a couple clots in my leg and because
my breathing was fast and my pulse was high that it could have broke off
and gone into my lungs. I was terrified. I asked them to get a hold of my
grandma since she worked in the same building. Right after that I was sent
into the next room for a cat scan. After that they came out and said I was
going to be admitted because I had several clots in each lung. The doctor
said I was a very lucky woman and got in just in time.
I was in the hospitol for four days. They had me taking lovenox and coumadin.
My doctor set me up with a hematologist and said I could go back to work
in a week and a half. That was also the time she told me that I had the
Factor V Leiden mutation.
I have met with Dr. Hurley once so far. He is my hematologist. I still have
some swelling in my leg so he ran some extra tests. He found out that I
have a lupus anticoagulant and an antiphospolipid anti-body as well as Factor
X. Factor X is something that falsely elevates your INR(PT) readings. So
instead of my target range being between 2 and 3 it's supposed to be between
3.4 and 4.
All of the blood work and such isn't really fun be any means. I will most
likely be on blood thinners the rest of my life. But everything is back
on track and my life is back to what is now normal. It's been a crazy year
but at least the coumadin is cheap.
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