My health had been perfect all along. There was never any issues.
The moment when I broke my bone, the first time in my life, in Australia (2013) I was surprised, because the fall was not so crazy at all. Then, for the first time, it turned out that I had higher blood pressure than I should have (can't remember what it was).
Some blood samples were taken there, but they were fine. So I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought to myself that sometimes it is higher, adrenaline or something, and I lived on my windswept lifestyle.
Oh and acne started appearing on my back as well.
In England (2016), however, it started to get very interesting. Basically, painful bruises started appearing on my legs, completely out of the blue, and quite constantly, and they were not small. And I couldn’t recall hitting myself anywhere. You can get more or less of an idea from the picture, but there the bruises are small. Quite often they were much bigger. I made a post about them to instagram to see if anyone has had similar issues, and one man wrote to me that his wife had the same issue, and the investigation had shown that she had leukemia, and unfortunately she didn't have much to live after it came out.
(In the meantime, I need to mention that some further facts are taken from old messages I have sent to my parents at the time. No, I don't have such a good memory! 😆)
We then read a little about it and found a text where one part sounded like this: "Due to the lack of platelets, blue spots easily appear on the skin."
Scary! Okay, I had been talking for 2 years that I had to do a family doctor in England, but I just haven't found the time for it - I had always been a healthy person. So I never thought I'd go do it because of such a thing, but it was time!
At the doctor's appointment, the usual health check-up was performed at the beginning - height, weight, blood pressure, etc. However, the nurse there had to fly upside down when she saw my blood pressure (I don't remember what it was anymore, but it was high). So the nurse didn't even let me out of there until I met the doctor.
The doctor, as soon as he heard that a 22-year-old girl with a high blood pressure had just stepped in, accepted me quickly in between the scheduled patients. The reason I went there (leukemia) seemed to be forgotten. He did a few quick checks, but all I remember is how he checked my eyes with a flashlight and then said, “You're too young and skinny for that kind of blood pressure. The chances of heart cancer are quite high.”
I remember that moment like yesterday. So scary. How do you tell a person, without research, that you probably have heart cancer - HOW?! Anyway, when I got home, I just cried. And I cried. And I cried. I was in England. Alone. There was no family support. I was confused and scared.
And then it started - research after research. I had written to my parents that I have to go to a cardiologist for examinations, the kidneys are checked and blood tests and MRI are performed.
I had written to my father that the doctor said that the normal kidney numbers are 80-90, but I had 44... And the wall of the heart has become very thick because it does three times the work because of high blood pressure.
By that time, the acne had also become very severe. Without understanding why.
However, I remember that the research came back perfect. Noone understood how I have such high blood pressure. I also tried to get the results of my researches from England, but unfortunately I didn’t, it's not as e-country as Estonia is.
I was also prescribed blood pressure treatment there. But it was terrible and made me insanely tired. So when I returned to Estonia, I went to my family doctor with the same problem. We tried different pills, but nothing suited me, and then I said enough. Let’s find the reason behind the sudden high blood pressure. I won’t take any more tablets.
I was sent to ITK (one hospital in Tallinn, Estonia) to give a 24h urine sample, which was lost by the hospital the next morning and did not reach the laboratory.
At that time I went to school and work again and just didn't have time to deal with it. Plus I felt really good again off tablets! Therefore, the further investigation was simply forgotten...