Rare

I've had my fair share of moments with my health. Sometimes I feel like a medical wonder with all the different issues I've had. None though have competed with what happened to me last year.

I'll take you back to 2016 where things became dangerously serious. I can't say that it was where it all began, but it was certainly where it all started to get dreadfully serious and very much noticeable. Early on in February, I remember coming down with a cold, which quickly turned into a chest infection. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm always suffering with my chest and constantly at the doctors for antibiotics. However, this time when I went to my doctors, it wasn't going to end here. The chest infection seemed to clear but the getting 'breathless' didn't seem to go. Every time I attempted to walk anywhere, I was constantly using my inhaler (later to find out that asthma was a misdiagnosis). At the time, I just brushed it aside and thought I just had very serve asthma. A few weeks had passed, by this point and by this time I was ready to start a new job. All was going really well, however, something seemed wrong. I started to get problems with my legs. In the past, I've suffered with something called phlebitis. It can be extremely painful and tends to cause inflammation and sometimes blood clots in the superficial veins. So there I was again at the doctors thinking I'd got another bout of phlebitis. As usual, I was given antibiotics to try clearing it. However, this didn't seem to help. There I was again at the doctors because the inflammation was spreading up my leg and towards my stomach. I still believe to this day that this is what may have caused the next problem. My constant going to the doctors made them decide to send me back to the haematologist to investigate what was happening. Going to see the haematologist seemed to be a disaster as what was about to happen was to cause me to have a second PE. Silly as it seems now, they asked me to stop taking my warfarin so I could have blood tests. This in the end, never happened. Within a week, I was back at the doctor's complaining of shortness of breath. Silly as it seems, I convinced myself that I had bad asthma. If it hadn't been for seeing the second nurse, I'm not sure I'd be here now. This lead to me then having to stop working. So I then began to question what was going on. Did I have something else wrong with me. I felt like all my symptoms were getting worse and trying to get people to understand was difficult. I guess I felt like I was taking my frustrations out on people. As time went on and more symptoms appeared, I became more tired and weak. I tried my best to carry on, however, I started to see who my real friends were and who could see my frustration with trying to do daily activities. By the time September came, I tried to return to work, but this wasn't too last. This was were the downward spiral began to happen...

About me

Hi there.

My name is Sharon and I have a condition called chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. It's a rare condition that effects 2-5% of people who have had a pulmonary embolism. All my blogs are to do with the journey and  where I am now. If you're reading my blogs, I hope you will enjoy them. My main purpose for writing them is to help people understand the journey and raise awareness of this condition. However, I will not bore you too much with condition. Some blogs will be to do with life in general.

Hope you enjoy!