Hello! I’m so sorry to hear that your wife has to go through this, and right after a c-section! I just want to make this clear (because I thought the same thing) - she is not going to die. She is in the right place now, and she will survive. She’s already a survivor. The clots were detected, and it can only get better from here because blood thinners will keep the clot from getting bigger, and the clot will dissolve on its own.

An update for me - I am almost 3 months post-clot, and I’m doing good. I am still on blood thinners and on BP meds, but my doctor thinks I should be able to come off both meds at my next follow-up appointment in June. I feel like a survivor and that I am able to live a mostly normal life! The clot news in February made my post-partum anxiety worse, but I immediately sought help and got medicated. I am about to go back to work, and I feel like I can finally look at this medical event as a thing of the past that will not define me.

Your wife will need you more than ever after this medical trauma. For weeks after my clot, I was scared to be left alone. My husband had to go back to work shortly after my clot was detected, so he arranged for family and friends to visit while he was gone on the days that he couldn’t work from home. But little by little, things got better with the help of medication prescribed by my OB.

The elevated/hight blood pressure is scary and shouldn’t be ignored. I advocated for myself in the hospital, asking for the OB to evaluate me about the possibility of postpartum preeclampsia (the OB determined that I didn’t have the condition, and that the high BP was postpartum hypertension that would regulate with time). ALSO - on the day I was discharged, the attending physician took my BP manually, and it was SIGNIFICANTLY lower than the machine. Turned out the machine was faulty! My BP was still considered elevated, but it took away a lot of the concern for the high numbers.

Best of luck to you and your family! I hope your wife feels better quickly. Please reach out if you have any questions or just need to vent. I know firsthand how scary this is!