Musings of a Dancing Kimist

I usually go for a walk on my lunch break - especially on nice days like today. Part of the path I take has a long row of pines.

It’s the time of year when the mature (?) pine cones are littered all along the sidewalk.

I have a thing for the noise a pine cone makes when you step on it; such a delicious crunch!

This is what I look like at work. During a pandemic. When I don’t feel like putting forth much effort because, again, pandemic. Only old white men at here at work with me and I care not their opinion about my hair or appearance.

There are many details that I won't share here, but that I will never forget; how I felt, where I was, how scared I was...the sequence of events from the time I felt like I was going to faint until the time I finally arrived at the hospital and was seen by a physician and the family and friends that surrounded me then. But what I think about most often since it occurred is how utterly grateful that I am still here to tell my tale and to warn others about what I relied on, but didn’t consider the warnings associated with it, and it ultimately almost took me away from this precious gift of life.

I developed a blood clot, also known as deep vein thrombosis, in my left calf that caused a lot pain in the middle of the night on 11/7/18 that woke me up out of my sleep. I thought it was just a bad leg cramp.

Around 7am, a piece or pieces of the blood clot broke off and traveled through my blood stream to my lungs where pieces lodged in my pulmonary artery and in both lungs. At that time, I felt like I couldn't catch my breath and I felt like I would faint.

I was made to remove my method of birth control because at the time, it was just suspected to be the cause of my blood clots. In time I would learn that it was definitely the cause; but also the starting point of a medical journey that had many twists and turns that I would have never imagined myself taking.

I went through iron deficiency anemia and early menopause after the PE, but for years I had been getting increasingly and inexplicably sicker. I would have time periods where I'd have bouts of severe headaches followed by nausea and vomiting so intense that I would not be able to eat or leave the bed or even drink water for 24 -48 hours.

It started off with me getting sick every couple of months in maybe 2009 (?), to me getting sick almost every other week by November 2018. But after I stopped with hormonal birth control and finishing iron injections for the anemia, I just stopped getting sick. Very quickly and abruptly.

The most important things I've experienced after blood clots is using the time I have on earth being happy and doing the most I can for my children. I've given up being angry at people in my life. I've turned over a new lease on life and a new leaf on the dedication I have to being present in my family’s lives.

And I'm so grateful to be here for another year to do it.

Vlog of the day 2/13/19

Video of the day, January 30, 2019

Winter is STUPID.

Vlog of the day.

1/23/19