Serena Williams appeared on the Today Show this morning and gave host Matt Lauer additional details about her recent health scare. As we detailed in our article on March 2, Williams was being treated for a pulmonary embolism which resulted from a deep vein thrombosis. The Grand Slam tennis champ had two surgeries on her foot and she apparently was in a cast for 10 weeks, followed by 10 with an orthopedic boot on her leg. She also was doing a lot of flying during that time as well.
The symptoms at the time she was diagnosed with pulmonary emboli (she had more than one) was shortness of breath, and swelling in her leg. She was diagnosed with a CT scan and put on anticoagulants (blood thinners). Williams reports that she had to inject the blood thinners into the skin of her abdomen twice a day, and that a hematoma (a collection of blood under the skin) had developed that was ultimately “the size of a grapefruit.” This had to be surgically removed, which was why she was hospitalized.
