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Jenifer Crandall
I'm a 25 year old mother of 3 beautiful girls. Ages from 1 year to 6 years old. I never knew about factor 5 nor what the clotting disorder does to you
and your body.
On July 5th of 2004, I was 38 weeks pregnant with my youngest daughter. I was at my fiance's sisters house, enjoying a nice day. I was in the kitchen,
talking away when I felt something warm on my legs. I yelled my water broke before I looked down. My fiance's sister screamed that I was bleeding. I looked
down and started screaming and crying. The first thought that ran through my head was my baby girl. My fiance's family called 911. I passed out a few minutes
later and I guess I want into seizures. By the time help had gotten there, I had already lost to much blood in such a short amount of time. I could not
feel my baby moving.
When I got to the ER, they took me to a room. There was so many people around and no one could tell me if my baby was going to be okay or not. My mom is
a OR nurse and was on-call that weekend. She was there holding my hand and telling me to be strong and everything will be okay.
Confused and scared, I tried to stay strong and hope for the best. The doctor on-call, Dr. Garica, did an emergency C-section. They had no time to give
me any drugs nor "knock me out". I felt the whole thing. The most pain I have ever been in. After they got Raven, my baby, out, she was not breathing.
It took the nurses and doctors 5 minutes to get my daughter to take her first breath. After she was breathing, she went into seizures due to air pockets
on her brain. After the c-section, I was put to sleep.
I woke up in the ICU unit, where my family was, waiting for me to wake up. My mom told me that Raven would be going to a different hospital because she
too, needed special attention. I only saw my baby for 5 minutes before she was taking to a different hospital. I was in the ICU unit for 5 days, I should
have been in longer but I wanted to be with my baby. After 12 days of Raven being at Willson Hospital, she came home. She has been seizure free for over
a year. She is a healthy baby who has over come so much. After everything was said and done, Dr. Garica did testing on my blood to find out why I had an
abortion. A few weeks later, I went back and she told me that I have factor 5. I sat there, at the age of 24, pretty scared and worried that this clotting
disorder is going to kill. It already tired and it all ready tried to kill my baby. I had tons of questions that needed answers. Where did I get it? Will
I pass it on to my kids? How do I treat it? Dr. Garica told me that I will have to take medication to help fight against blood clots and strokes. Then
I asked, why did this happen when I was pregnant with Raven and not when I was pregnant with my other two children? She said it was a time bomb waiting
to go off.
Now, 17 months later, I'm still scared that one night I will go to bed but not wake up the next morning. Since finding out about factor 5, I'm a healthier
person and I now take care of myself. I have 3 beautiful girls, who need their mother around for a long time. I also learn that this is not a death sentence,
it's life. There are far much worse things out there then factor 5. I can live with this and just wish more people would get checked for this clotting
disorder. Because of this clotting disorder, I can't not have any more children. I can't not take birth control with hormones. I now have a 10 year IUD.
I hope this helps pregnant women with signs of this clotting disorder not to look over it. Your life and your baby's life is too special to lose.