Charley Horse or Blood Clot? When Oversharing Saves Lives

This morning I texted my husband, “Jalen Hurts is out for the rest of the season with a DVT and bilateral PEs so I’m basically an NFL quarterback now,” which is, for the record, the closest I will ever get to being an NFL quarterback. He laughed, but Hurts and I both went to SEC schools and have gotten the no contact sports talk from doctors. (Which I recognize was a slightly smaller sacrifice for me than for him…)

Every single time one of these stories pops up, and they somehow seem to always find their way to my timeline, I’m just kind of floored that more people don’t know about blood clots and how dangerous they can be, so today’s story sent me back into my blog archives to spruce up some content and provide an update on how I’m doing almost ten years later.

The Short Version of My Long Story

Back in 2017, I turned 35, had a long night of lots of red wine and raucous rounds of Cards Against Humanity, and woke up with a pain in my calf that I decided was just what 35 felt like. For almost three weeks I walked around with the pain, got winded going up the stairs to tuck my kids into bed, couldn’t breathe barely a minute into a YouTube workout in my living room, and blamed every bit of it on being overweight and out of shape.

Then a friend shared an article, and one line in it said people feel the Charley horse-like pain in their calf, blow it off, and then die of a pulmonary embolism. That was exactly what my leg had felt like for three weeks.

So I called my doctor, and after a little bit of panicking into a receptionist’s ear, learned I had two DVTs in my left leg. A CT scan a few weeks later found pulmonary emboli in my right lung, which is what that whole can’t-breathe-during-a-workout-video moment had been.

(You can find the whole series of posts from 2017 at the bottom of this one!)

But the ultra short story is this: A friend sharing an article got me to the doctor and sharing my story started doing the same thing for other people.

When Oversharing is Caring

I’ve had countless people reach out to me over the last nine years and ask “hey, what did that feel like again?” because they were dealing with a pain they couldn’t explain. And at least four of those people have gone on to discover that they have a deep vein thrombosis (or several) and a pulmonary embolism (or several).

A friend reached out after the fact to say her doctor had found blood clots and the only reason she knew to ask for the ultrasound was because of me. When my uncle had pain and swelling in his leg, I relayed a very firm message through my mom that he needed to call his doctor. He had clots and pulmonary emboli too.

Then in November 2024, my mom called me one morning and asked what my pain had felt like. So I told her, and she said yeah, she’d kind of had that pain in her leg, like a Charley horse, and she’d rubbed it and massaged it and put pain cream on it and it just wouldn’t go away, and her leg was a little swollen.

So I sent her straight to her doctor’s office where they did an ultrasound and sent her straight to the ER. Blood clots. She also had bilateral PEs, meaning clots in both lungs (which means my mom is also basically an NFL quarterback now).

I’ll let past me tell that story:

(And yes, before you ask, my hematologist took many, many vials of blood back in 2017 and found no genetic reason for my clots. And yet here we are with three of us in one family.)

To Everyone in My Comments

The other thing I didn’t know when I hit publish (but which I absolutely should have known because it’s literally how the internet works) is that strangers would keep finding these posts for years.

Some of the comments on the older posts are from friends in 2017 telling me not to die (thank you, I didn’t), but a lot of them are from people who found me later, from a hospital bed or a couch with a brand-new blood thinner prescription, Googling the exact same things I’d Googled.

One woman wrote from a hospital bed, on oxygen, with clots in both lungs from birth control. Two others had been on the same family of pills I was. A lot of you asked me questions, and I, um, never answered them. (In my defense, I was kind of busy not dying.)

So, hi. I’m answering now.

Since Y’all Asked

How are you doing, years later?

I’m fine! A little more neurotic about random aches and pains, but fine. I was on blood thinners for about nine months total, because my PEs were kind of stubborn.

I’ve worked (intermittently, let’s be honest) on my cardiovascular health, cut back on alcohol, and I stay current on my flu and COVID boosters (because early COVID came with a lot of scary clotting news and those first uncertain months of the pandemic made me way more aware of all of it). (Probably unrelated to my clots. Still doing it.)

It’s been recommended that I get a scan for chronic venous insufficiency, but I haven’t done that yet. But I will.

Was it genetic?

Nope. No mutations, no clotting disorders, nothing. My doctors landed on birth control as the cause, and I wrote a whole post about that.

Did you have to give up coffee?

No. I did not give up coffee.

How soon could you exercise again?

I didn’t really even start exercising until fall of 2021, so your doctor is the better person to ask here. However, blood thinners come with an increased risk of internal bleeding, which is why contact sports are a bad idea while you’re taking them.

Did you have food restrictions?

None for me. Some blood thinners do come with food rules (warfarin is the one people usually mean, because vitamin K affects how well it works), so ask your doctor or pharmacist about yours.

What about menopause and hormones?

I am currently rawdogging perimenopause with no hormone replacement therapy, and my husband bought me an Orion sleep system to deal with the night sweats. (Yes, that’s a referral link.)

It goes without saying, but my experience with this is not medical advice for yours. If you’ve had a clot, talk to your doctor about what’s safe for you.

Okay, Now the Important Part

I gaslit myself for three weeks into believing I was just overweight and out of shape, and I think a lot of us (women especially) are so conditioned not to trust what our bodies are telling us that we do dumb things like that because we’re afraid of not being listened to or we don’t want to be an inconvenience or whatever and it’s literally killing us. So please don’t do that.

If something is weird or wrong or wonky or just off, it is worth getting checked out.

Here’s the short version of what to watch for. The long version, with sources, is in my warning signs post.

Call your doctor right away if you have any of these in your leg:

• Pain or tenderness (usually the calf or thigh), sometimes only when you’re standing or walking
• Swelling in the leg, ankle, or foot
• Red or discolored skin
• Skin that feels warmer than normal
• Veins that look bigger or more visible than usual

Call 911 if you have any of these:

• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• A cough (sometimes with blood)
• Sudden pain in your back
• Way more sweating than usual
• Feeling lightheaded, or passing out
• Blue lips or nails

If your doctor can’t see you quickly, go to urgent care or the ER. And if they don’t listen, advocate for yourself even when it’s really, really hard, because it might save your life.

If your leg hurts and you don’t know why, call your doctor today. Not next week. Today.

And if someone you love mentions a Charley horse that won’t go away? Nag them. It might save their life.

Read my whole blood clot story:

1. That Time I Had a Deep Vein Thrombosis: A Blood Clot Story
2. Not Dying From a Blood Clot Is A Solid Life Choice
3. Deep Vein Thrombosis Warning Signs: What You Need to Know About Blood Clots
4. The Clot Thickens: Pulmonary Embolism
5. Birth Control And Blood Clots: A (Possibly) Deadly Combination
6. Charley Horse or Blood Clot? When Oversharing Saves Lives (you are here)