June 9th is World APS Day so to raise money for their charity & also raise awareness to the illness ill be selling a collection of products throughout June & 100% of the profits will be going to the charity. I have also set up a crowdfunding page for anyone that would like to donate. On the 30th June ill add it all the sales & donations and donate on behalf of us all here. I appreciate everything even if its just liking, commenting & sharing my posts & links. 💖

Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS) is a autoimmune condition in which there is an increase tendency for the blood to clot. 

The Clotting can affect any organ in the body & the consequences can include potentially fatal conditions such as heart attacks, strokes,  pulmonary emboli and DVTs. In pregnancy, APS is the most common treatable form of recurrent miscarriage, it can also cause infertility and still births. 

APS Support UK (the trading name of the Hughes Syndrome Foundation) became a registered charity in 2001. They aim to support anyone affected by the condition, to raise awareness of the disease both among the general public and the medical community and to raise funds to provide information, education & further medical research. 

My story with APS

I’m Megan, 23 years old & a mum of 2 little girls. I gave birth to my oldest daughter in 2018, the birth was horrendous & extremely traumatic leaving me in a lot of pain, needing a blood transfusion & just feeling run down. 3-4 weeks postpartum i was in so much pain i was bed bound with my new born baby, couldn’t walk or move. I put this down to a mix of what every mother goes through after birth & how my birth went. Fast forward to 5 weeks postpartum the pain got worse as each day passed I finally convince myself i needed to go to the hospital. After loads of tests, scans, drs in and out taking & 9 days stuck to a hospital bed we finally found out i had my first two clots (DVTs) in my hips/upper thigh on both legs with the left side being the worse (seems to be a running theme 😂). I was giving a blood thinner called Warfarin & sent home with daily appointments between my GP, Warfarin clinic & Hospital. I was terrified, i felt like what should of been the happiest moment in my life bring a baby into the world turned into the darkest time of my life, i felt like my world was falling apart. 

After a while we figured Warfarin wasn’t for me, i was never in therapeutic range and it was taking over my day to day life back & forth at appointments so i made the switch over to daily injections of Fragmin (dalteparin) & ive been on them since the start of 2019. 

2019 i fell pregnant with my 2nd daughter the pregnancy went amazing & the birth went so smoothly. I had a few little clots in my legs throughout the pregnancy but nothing major. 

From around 4 days postpartum the same pains started to happen again but also sharp pains in my chest. Again me being me put it down to normal postpartum pains & by 10 days postpartum i ended up in Hospital in High Dependency Unit with 2 major blood clots in my lungs (PE). It was a really scary time in my life, having drs & nurses telling me i could die from walking the 6-7 steps it took to go from my bed to the bathroom, not being able to see my 10day old & 18month old babies for a few days. Emotions running high. Trying to keep up with my breastfeeding journey & asking the nurses if i could borrow a breast pump from the maternity ward & the unknown of whats going to happen to me. 

The pain i was in. The look on my mums face as she is trying to be strong for me and tell me everything is going to be okay but also the look of fear in her eyes as she knew i wasn't okay . The worried look on the nurses face as they call for help & lots of consultants & doctors come rushing into the room. The panicked energy that floods the room around me as i sit there in my own little bubble trying to process it all as everything around me is just one big blur. All of that will never leave me, i still struggle with nightmares & flashbacks of my whole journey so far with APS, the thought of going into hospital or even a simple doctors appointment scares me incase it happens all over again. Living my life in fear of every little heart, lung or leg pain but also ignoring it as i mentally cant go through it again. The constant worry thinking my kids will be left without a mum at a really young age. 

My last blood clot was end of November 2019, 18 months later I’m still in pain, i have days i can take a few pain killers and power through but i also have days when I physically can’t take enough pain killers to even touch the pain. I struggle doing simple daily tasks i took for granted prior to 2019. I try my absolute best to stay positive, to power through the pain so i can be the fun playful mum my daughters deserve, to be the sociable Friend/Girlfriend/Daughter that makes plans, goes out places, visits people or just be upbeat & involved in day to day life but what no one sees is that one evenfull day that gets plastered all over social media takes me days to get over & recover mentally and physically by then its time for the next thing i need to leave the house for, its a never ended cycle. 

Prior to my diagnosis i had no idea APS excised... how many of yous have heard of it before hearing my story?