How Medium Triggered a Two-Week Stay in the Hospital
Because of a Massive Pulmonary Embolism
Gradually I began taking a nap every day. Then a couple weeks later, one nap felt so good, I started taking two naps every day. A week or so into three naps a day as I lay on the bed, I realized I couldn’t move my legs. Then I broke out in a cold sweat.
“Eric,” I yelled out to my husband, “Call 911. I’m having a heart attack.” Within minutes I was lying on a gurney in an ambulance and then in the emergency room at Porter Hospital, just blocks from our house.
Several tests later, including a CT Scan, a young doc looked down at me.
“MaryJo, you didn’t have a heart attack. You have a massive pulmonary embolism in your right lung and several smaller ones in the left lung and in your left leg. You are lucky to be alive. We’re admitting you to the hospital.”
Within minutes I was in a hospital room with a Heparin IV running through a tube into the back of my right hand and into my blood stream and an intravenous-fluids IV running into the back of my left hand plus a an oxygen cannula in my nose. (Heparin prevents further blood clots.) Nurses were in and out checking blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen every little while.
