Heartbreaking

I've shared my condition only with a few close friends, for fear of worrying them. (Note, I realize it's necessary to let at least a few close people know what is going on with you - once anti-coagulant therapy is working, you need to be sure people know about your risk of bleeding, for example. But my private nature has led me to keep these discussions to a bare minimum!)

One of these dear friends became very, very alarmed by my news (just what I was afraid of), because she knew of a young woman who had died of a pulmonary embolism. An entertainment executive with an international job, this woman had returned from one of her frequent overseas flights and noticed she felt incessantly short of breath. Despite urging from her colleagues and friends to see a doctor, she ignored the symptom, which perhaps seemed just mildly bothersome and not worth worrying about. A week later, she died suddenly in a meeting; she just slumped over in her chair and was gone. She was only 34 years old.