When sophomore Yvonne Jebe woke up one morning, she felt like she was going to faint. She went to the bathroom, laid on the floor, and sure enough, everything turned black.
The first thing she did when she regained consciousness was puke. She knew there was something wrong when she looked down and noticed blood in the toilet.
After flushing, she called her cousin and had her take her to the Enloe Medical Center Emergency Room. Once there, she told the receptionist her symptoms and took a seat, trying to stay calm but freaking out inside.
"I kept thinking, 'What could be wrong with me that made me puke blood?'" Jebe said.
After waiting in the emergency room for hours, she finally had her vitals taken, her blood drawn and got an X-ray and a CT scan. The nurse also got an IV started with morphine for the sharp pains she was feeling in her back and chest.
When the doctor came in he told her that she was suffering from a pulmonary embolism, which is when blood clots form in your lungs. The CT scan she had done earlier showed that her lungs were covered in blood clots, which is why she had been feeling short of breath.
The doctor explained to her the cause of the clots was birth control.
That's what freaked me out about this whole situation. Everyone reads the information about birth control's possible side effects maybe once and then just tosses the papers in the trash.
I have to admit, that's what I do. The doctor explains the fine print when prescribing the medication, so from then on I just grabbed the pills and chucked the wad of papers.
Some more common concerns women have when taking birth control are weight gain or developing acne. But what about the part that says rare but serious complications of oral contraceptives are serious cardiovascular complications. Women read over it and think, "It's rare, it's not going to happen to me."
It happened to Jebe.
Luckily, she made it to the hospital before the clots caused deadly damage. At any time, one of the clots could have dislodged, traveled through her blood stream and caused blockage to her heart or brain.
If a clot had blocked blood flow in her heart, she would have had a heart attack. If one had blocked blood flow to her brain, she would have suffered a stroke.
"It's scary to think that I could have died of a heart attack at 19," Jebe said.
Because any kind of movement could possibly dislodge one of the clots, Jebe was put on strict bed rest and blood thinning medication.
This is why, for the first three days of being in the hospital, Jebe couldn't even get up to pee.
Yeah, try using a bedpan for three days, because if you get up, you might die.
It's not fun when your friend calls you crying after being in the hospital for four days all alone and scared, because she really wants to get up and go to the bathroom, but she can't because she might die. How do you explain to her that it's going to be OK?
After spending seven days in the hospital, hooked up to wires and machines with needles in each arm, getting shots in the stomach twice a day and blood drawn once a day, Jebe was glad to finally be well enough to leave, she said.
Now, she takes blood thinners and returns to the hospital at least twice a week to have her blood tested. And because she is on medication to make her blood thin to prevent clots, she has to be very careful, because even the smallest bump that leaves the faintest bruise can cause internal bleeding.
And, of course, Jebe can never be on birth control again.
As smart, responsible women, we take birth control to protect ourselves, but we should make sure we are protecting ourselves in every other way, too.
Courtney Mahoney can be reached at cmahoney@theorion.com
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