A mystery....

I put up with the coughing for months. From that January all the way to the beginning of summer. I was hacking like there was no tomorrow. And I was guzzling cough drops like candy.  I figured that I was getting older, and this nagging cough of mine was just a part of life. I never smoked; it was obvious I didn't have pneumonia; I figured maybe it was just a part of getting older. I had no clue as to what was happening in my body. And neither did my primary care physician. I was totally in the dark, until exactly 2 years ago, today.

That day, I woke up in intense pain behind my left knee. I figured , "What the hell is it now?" I went back to my PCP and told him of my new malady. The pain was faint for about a week, but on this particular day, the pain was so intense I could barely stand. I went over my new symptoms with my PCP, and he suggested that I probably had a blood clot and that I should go to one of or ER's nearby. My wife drove me and I had a scan of my left leg...and it turns out my PCP was correct. I had a huge blood clot behind my left knee.....no wonder it was the size of an apple back there....it hurt like shit. But at least I knew what was going on. The blood clots explained everything...the shortness of breath, the coughing...they ARE symptoms of blood clots. I couldn't figure out why I had lost 53 pounds in 6 months, but everything else added up. Blood clots, right? Wrong.