When the appointment letter arrived from the hospital, I assumed it was another check-up. When I arrived, I had an ECG before being summoned to the consultants’ office.
He talked about how clever my heart had been, finding its own bypass solution to the severely blocked artery and how strong and healthy it had become.
Then he said that my breathlessness wasn’t caused by my heart and that something must be wrong with my lungs. He remembered that back in March, my leg and foot had been swollen, and he had prescribed water tablets which hadn’t done a thing to reduce the swelling. When he saw how bad it was now, he looked worried and started talking about blood clots.
This was when worry crept into the office and sat on my shoulder.
In my teens, I had a deep vein thrombosis in my leg after giving birth. I was forbidden to move in case it travelled, so I knew why he looked worried. He didn’t make it clear whether he thought there could be a blood clot in my chest and/or my leg, so I wasn’t surprised when he arranged for two scans to be done urgently.
I had barely reached home when the phone rang. This was the appointment for the first scan. An hour later, another call about the second. Both are to be done on Monday afternoon.
I am all for finding solutions to my problems, but why does it have to sound so serious? Is it possible to be walking around for nearly a year with lethal blood clots in your body? That doesn’t sound feasible, so it must be something else. The only trouble is, something else might be worse…
I have encountered serious before, what with cancer and two heart attacks, but I have the feeling that whatever this turns out to be might test my bravery to the limit…
Anyway, enough of all this rubbish. We are seeing the new baby this afternoon!
Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes 
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