My name is Rachel Marshall, I am currently 18, however my story began when I was 16 years old.

I was studying at my secondary school in my final year

I was studying at my secondary school in my final year getting ready to do my G.C.S.Es. In the October of 2017. I began to get more and more breathless, I was slowly getting worse, visiting doctors every few weeks to try and get an answer.

I was told I had a chest infection

At first, I was told I had a chest infection which then didn’t go away. I was also told I had asthma and was given an inhaler. Even after complaining I wasn’t getting better when using it, but instead getting worse, I was told I was using it wrong and was asked to come back in a few weeks for review.

I was no longer able to walk to and from school

By this time, it was January of 2018 and I was no longer able to walk to and from school because of the breathlessness, I had to wait for my dad to finish work and pick me up and drop me off on a morning. I struggled getting up the stairs.

On the morning of the 24th January 2018 I was getting ready for my day at school and had woken up with a cough. Whilst in the bathroom I coughed up a large blood clot which was the first signal something wasn’t right. My parents didn’t want to worry me, so I was told to attend school and my dad took me to school in the car. Whilst in the car I began to get chest pain, thinking nothing of it I took two paracetamols to try and stop it. At school the pain got progressively worse to the point I could only do short shallow breaths, even that being extremely painful. So, I asked to leave my lesson as I felt I needed to go to the hospital.

I could only do short shallow breaths

My dad came to collect me, and we went to the doctors for an emergency appointment. After assessing my symptoms my doctor decided it may have been a pulmonary embolism, as I was currently taking the oral combined contraceptive pill for my bad periods.

I had multiple blood clots on both of my lungs

I was put onto oxygen and an ambulance was called to take me to the hospital. Once at the hospital I had an ECG taken and was given a chest x-ray. After the results of these, I had my bloods taken to see how thick my blood was, this is called a d-dimer test. My result was an 8.1, twice the thickness it should have been. I also had a CT scan to see if and where/how many clots were on my chest. After all of these tests at the hospital, it was confirmed I had multiple blood clots on both of my lungs and was taken off my combined pill and was started on the blood thinner rivaroxaban straight away.

My case was then investigated and was classed as unprovoked pulmonary embolism meaning that there was no underlying cause that they could find, and I had no genetic risks for clotting.

Currently I am recovered with little to no issues with my chest and I chose to come off the blood thinners in the July of 2018 as I struggled with the side effects and felt I wasn’t at a high enough risk of it happening again. I am also currently ensuring I follow advice on leading a healthy lifestyle by eating well and exercising regularly as this has been shown to be a factor in prevention so I hope it will help me prevent any further issues for myself.

Note to readers from Thrombosis UK – the combined oral contraceptive pill is a known risk factor for increasing a person’s risk of blood clots

For more information about the combined oral contraceptive pill, please read our leaflet – Thrombosis and Women: periods, the contraceptive pill & hormone replacement therapy (HRT)