I was 18 years old when I began taking a sample of NuvaRing from the women’s clinic on campus at Colorado State University around October 20th, 2013. I was given two rings and was on the second when I woke up December 11th with pain in what I thought was my ribs and neck on my left side. That night around 11 PM I could not sleep because of the pain, which had me in tears and having trouble breathing. I told my RA and she called 911.

In the ER I had a CAT scan and that is when I was told it was a Pulmonary Embolism. I spent that night and the next night at Poudre Valley Hospital. When I was discharged I had to inject myself with Lovenox for the next 6 days twice a day while also taking Coumadin. I am still taking 6mg of Coumadin every day and will most likely have to for the rest of my life. I will not be able to donate blood, plasma, or bone marrow, as I have wanted for years.

Other healing processes including having to sleep sitting up for 3 weeks, and being exhausted, and short-winded for over a month. I also didn’t have an appetite for two weeks after being discharged. It was only recently that my INR was therapeutic. Before I was therapeutic I had to get my blood tested once a week for around 3 months. Thankfully, now I have to go only once a month.

I realize this may be a stretch, but I think if NuvaRing is not recalled, women should have to read and sign a waiver. I wish I had been told that blood clots were possible if I smoked. But I was not aware. And that, to me, is not a mistake worth dying over.