Senior Macie Baker offers some insight into what is is like living with a rare medical condition, and what she does to stay positive through it all.

Q: What exactly is your medical condition?

A: I have a blood clot in my left leg known also called deep vein thrombosis or DVT. But the disorder that caused it is called Factor V Leiden.

Q: Is it rare? How many people have this?

A: Between three and eight percent of people with European descent carry one copy of the gene.

Q: What are the symptoms that you deal with?

A: I have bad circulation and my leg swells a lot which causes the left leg to be bigger than the other.

Q: What specific limitations does your leg cause you to have?

A: I can’t walk up and down the stairs too much and I can’t play volleyball

Q: Were you born with this?

A: Yes, I was born with Factor V Leiden but we did not know that I had it until June 2013 when I found out I had my blood clot.

Q: How did you react when you were diagnosed?

A: To be honest I was really loopy from the pain- relievers and I don’t really remember. But when I woke up I was really surprised and I didn’t really understand what was going on.

Q: What type of treatment do you have to get for it?

A: In the beginning I got a shot in my stomach twice a day. Now I just a take blood thinner pill every day.

Q: How does it affect your life on a daily basis?

A: I wear compression stocking, but I’m used to it now, I don’t even notice it anymore.

Q: I know that you are a part of the volleyball team here at South. How do work around your condition?

A: I’m not allowed to actually play. I can practice but we have to limit the amount.

Q: Are there any benefits that come with your condition?

A: Yeah- Raising awareness. Especially raising awareness for blood clots in children. The probability of blood clots in children is 1 in 1 million per year.

Q: Why is it important to you to raise awareness?

A: A lot of people don’t know that children can have blood clots, they don’t understand what they really are and how dangerous they can be.

Q: Is there anyone in specific that you would like to thank for helping you adjust to this? Why?

A: I’d like to thank my family and my teammates. They have supported me through it all… well and My doctors obviously because they saved my life.

Q: Are there any misconceptions about your leg that you would like to clear up?

A: I think people often think like ‘Oh it’s just a blood clot’, but my doctor said if I hadn’t have come in that night I would have died by the next morning.

Q: If there were one thing you could say to someone struggling with a medical condition in their own life, what advice would give them?

A: Just because something bad happened doesn’t mean you have to make it into a bad situation. Like I’m making my condition a positive thing by raising awareness.

Q: What are you doing to raise awareness?

A: We did an awareness night during volleyball and we are starting to put a 5k together in this area.

Q: Is there a specific group that your walk will benefit?

A: It will be for Children’s Mercy Hospital.