Four babies hemorrhage after parents refuse vitamin K shot, a practice on the rise

[pnwmom]

95. My case of DVT in my 7th month was almost missed.

I'd called my doctor over the weekend to talk about the pain I was having where my thigh joins my abdomen, and he asked the usual questions (no redness, no swelling, no streak). I saw him on Monday and he still thought I was having just ordinary pregnancy discomfort. I called on Tuesday and they didn't think they needed to see me again. I went back on Thursday and my doctor's partner -- who had seen one case of DVT in a pregnant woman in med school -- convinced him to send me into the hospital for testing. Even though there still wasn't any obvious swelling.

But the tech in the hospital diagnosed me almost the second I got on the table -- even before she did the ultrasound -- which was unnerving! Of course she had seen many more of these over her career than any young family practitioner.

All of a sudden, after my symptoms being a "discomfort" for 5 days, I was a major emergency. For two days, while they waited for the Heparin to take effect, I wasn't supposed to even move myself in the bed. And then later I read about DVT and saw the unforgettable words "can occur without symptoms and cause instant death." It took me a while before I got up the nerve to get pregnant again, that's for sure.