2008 Woodie Awards
Hidden Danger
Gina Stanish
Issue date: 1/1/08 Section: News
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Now, if you're reading this and thinking to yourself, "I'm too young to have a stroke, heart attack, or blood clots. That would never happen to me." Think again! How do I know? Because I'm twenty-one years old and I experienced one of those side effects; and I almost didn't live to tell about it.
In November, 2007, I was diagnosed with a massive blood clot throughout my entire right leg from my pelvis to my foot. The cause? Ten years of being on the pill. The doctors said that they had never seen a blood clot so big before in such a young person. The clot in my leg was so long and so thick that a piece of it broke off and went up into my lungs. This is called a Pulmonary Embolism, which is another dangerous side effect that can occur. In fact, it does occur in the bodies of 75 percent of women with an existing blood clot due to estrogen containing substances.
The pain I experienced from the blood clot was like no pain I have ever felt before in my entire life. It was so severe that even high doses of Morphine gave me no relief. The only way to help was a surgical, life threatening procedure. The doctors had to insert a catheter behind my right knee and literally blast the clot in an attempt to dissolve it. They also had to insert a stent into one of my veins that had collapsed; however, the clot was so big, the procedure was unsuccessful. In an attempt to prevent the clot from going farther into my lungs, the doctors took my back into surgery for yet another life threatening procedure that only the chief of surgery could perform.
This time, the catheter was inserted through the main artery in my neck, and an IVC Filter was placed in my right groin. The purpose of an IVC Filter is to stop blood clots from traveling from its original spot, while it is being dissolved in surgery. Luckily, this procedure was successful. After a few days, I began to improve dramatically; however, due to the location and size of the clot, it destroyed all of the muscles in my leg. I had to undergo physical therapy and be taught how to walk all over again.
All of this happened within a time period of four weeks, and it was the scariest time of my life. I am never allowed to take any medicines containing estrogen again and I am now on a blood thinner called Coumadin for the next six months. I have to get my blood taken every week to check the its levels to make sure that my blood is thin enough to dissolve any clots.