by Sara D.
I woke up on a Wednesday with severe back pain. I thought I slept wrong, so I took some ibuprofen and headed to work.
I left work early that day because of the pain, which began radiating to my ribs and shoulder, and kept taking over-the-counter pain medications with no relief. I had no suspicions of anything serious.
I decided to visit the nearby urgent care when nothing I had done at home worked. They prescribed some muscle relaxers and told me to rest. I took the muscle relaxers, but still, there was no relief.
I hadn’t been sleeping well because of the pain, and when I realized I was in for another sleepless night, my fiancé decided it was time to visit the emergency room. I was seen immediately, given stronger pain medications, and was happy for a little relief. The physician told me that he suspected kidney stones and would like to get a CT scan to check. Not too long after the scan, the physician came in and told me about finding lung damage on the scan. He said that this type of damage was usually caused by one of two things: pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism (PE or blood clot in the lung).
At this point, I still didn’t expect a PE. I had just gotten over a cold and figured it was something left over from that. The physician requested another CT scan to rule out PE, but it ultimately confirmed the diagnosis.
What I thought was going to be a few hours in the emergency department turned into a two-day stay and a life-changing diagnosis. The only known risk factor for me was estrogen-based birth control.
I’m glad I got the help I needed, but I wish I had listened to my body sooner. I knew something was wrong. I was in a lot of pain that I hadn’t experienced before, but I dismissed a lot of it because I wasn’t having all of the “classic” symptoms.
