This morning after reading a report over Pennsylvania's Mayor Cassandra Coleman
surviving a DVT, I found a comment that surprised me. I could not tell the
poster’s gender nor his or her age. The poster seemed very upset that Mayor Coleman’s
personal friend, Representative Phyllis Mundy, is wanting to create an awareness on her friend’s new
lifelong diagnosis of keeping blood clots from entering her body. Point taken. So,
those of who have been in Mayor Coleman’s shoes should stop our fight to save
other men and women’s lives? We should make this our number one priority each
day? We should not create signs and posters that provide statistics and facts
about blood clots?
The poster is right about one thing. We do have digital technology that
informs our public on blood clots. This lacks real in-depth education. Facts
from medical journals and leading research hospitals do not provide the public
with survivor’s stories or our tips we have learned from our traumatic
experiences. Traumatic is one word I use to describe my two experiences with
blood clots. When I read this comment, I felt refreshed on why I create an
awareness of blood clots. I had begun to wonder why I felt so passionate about
creating an awareness. Years have passed since I have been hospitalized. I have
befriended other women who have been in my shoes. This is considered networking
and reaching out for assistance.
When I entered the Emergency Room on the afternoon of July 23,
2010, something happened to me that I cannot explain today. I realized my life
was too short for having regrets. I had not completed college at the time. I have
my Associates degree in Liberal Studies, and I will soon be working on my
Bachelor’s of Arts in Liberal Arts with an English concentration. I could not
eat salads or anything with vitamin k while on the blood thinner. I eat salads
daily along with those other delicious green vegetables. I felt like a failure
that day. Now I do not. I still battle with severe depression. I still have
nightmares from that time period and before. I still feel like I broke my
promise to myself about not ever taking medicine again. The one medicine I did
take landed me in the Emergency Room with both a PE and a DVT. Perhaps that was
my punishment for being so misguided in my life and dropping out of college
during my twenties. This is something I will never know. Why did blood clots happen to me?
This is why strong advocates fight for other people’s health and
security each day. We do not personally know the people who may have a genetic
trait to the blood clotting disorder. We feel as if we have a mission to serve and
protect our communities by creating an awareness. We have our critics who think
we should keep silent. Keeping silent was what landed us in the Emergency Room
to begin with. When nobody comes forward and provides a personal testimony,
other people suffer the same way. We do not have a light guiding us down a dark
tunnel. We do not know what to do or how to respond to this situation. We suffer
in silence.
My husband’s paternal grandmother passed away from a blood clot in
1995. My husband has been affected by blood clots. This is why I work out and
try to live right. I do not wish to pass away from blood clots. I remember the
sadness my husband felt when he watched me suffer greatly from blood clots. My husband
would have made his grandmother proud. I do feel sadness that he could not sit
by his grandmother’s side and feed her the way I fed my grandfather when he
suffered from a stroke in 1995.
Suffering is not something I wish for anybody’s life. To watch
somebody strong physically and then become paralyzed is also traumatizing. My grandfather
suffered a series of strokes and he never recovered. Up until then, I believed
Granddaddy to be immortal. No illness or disease could ever take Granddaddy
away from me. He would be around forever. He would always be feeding his cows
or bailing hay. He would always attend the First Baptist Church on Sunday mornings
and return home to his lovely wife’s home-cooking. He would be there to watch
his grandchildren and great grand-children’s life events. This is the image I love
when I think about my Granddaddy. Why
did a stroke have to happen to him? He was a wonderful Southern gent who stood
by his family through thick and thin.
As I have written several times in the past, I strongly believe
that education will best eliminate ignorance in our society. Yes, we have
wonderful digital technology that brings public awarenesses of heart disease,
cancer, disabilities, and so much more. Several survivors of these ailments
have taken stands to provide personal journeys about their struggles and skills
necessary for achieving hope. This is
what digital technology lacks. This world has made more sense to me since
getting in touch with networks of women who have been in my shoes and reading
articles over other blood clot survivors. We will always have critics who
disagree with our paths. I look for comfort from those who have been down my
path. Where will this path take me? How can I help other people with the information I have discovered?
Amanda-Leigh's Recommended Link:
State Gives New Attention to Deep Vein Thrombosis
http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/349402/State-gives-new-attention-to-deep-vein-thrombosis
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