Rob here. I didn’t listen to my body and could have died.
Around Thanksgiving 2021, I suddenly randomly became short of breath, lightheaded and sweaty. I had to pause walking up steep Seattle hills. Gently jogging up the 14 steps in my home became laborious.
It slowly got worse, but I’ve had allergies and asthma since I was a kid and didn’t think much of it. I continued exercising and other daily routines. Then, the day before Christmas Eve, I picked up a heavy object and couldn’t breathe. At all. I knew something was wrong, but I ignored it. I thought of perhaps the six most dangerous words in the English language: “Maybe it will just go away.”
It got worse the next day, though if I sat completely still, I felt OK. Then, late Christmas Eve, I dropped a glass and started speaking in gibberish. Emily called 911 and I found myself in an emergency room early Christmas morning.
The diagnosis
I had suffered an ischemic stroke and what the doctor thought was a heart attack. A few tests later, he told me it was a pulmonary embolism instead. I had no idea what that was, but he said I had two “huge” blood clots in my lungs, and I needed to be rushed to an intensive care unit. I would have no access to blood-thinning medication during the 20-or-so minute drive in an ambulance. I overheard him tell nurses that it was a risk, but he had no other choice. Only then did I realize how serious this was. At this point, I couldn’t even sit up without becoming extremely short of breath.
I later learned that approximately 400,000 people are hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism each year. One-quarter of them die. It turns out that I have both a defective gene that causes clotting (Factor V Leiden) and a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a flap-like opening between the upper chambers of my heart, which is where the clot traveled to my brain, causing the stroke. I’m now on blood thinners the rest of my life.
I’ve completely recovered and honestly don’t think about it much these days, but Formidable’s upcoming Women’s Health Summit has me focused on all things health, especially as surveys show that medical professionals often cite “anxiety” or “stress” as catch-all diagnoses for women’s health concerns.
Here’s the thing: I knew something was wrong and ignored it. It could have killed me. A nurse told me if I hadn’t been in such good shape, “the outcome could have been very different.” I won’t ignore my body again.
Nor should you yours. Not to be dramatic, but the life you save will be your own.
