Bonnie's Story

A painful leg cramp can often be something more serious.

Meet Bonnie, a nurse for the last 38 years who's dedicated her life to helping others. She never imagined she would diagnose herself, but that's just what she did. With her medical expertise, Bonnie was able to recognize the severity of her symptoms and take action.

Nearly 10 years ago, Bonnie had a cramp in her leg that was cause for concern. Soon her foot turned pale and felt cold. She quickly tried to find a pulse in her foot and couldn't find one.

"I've been a nurse for a long time, so I knew not being able to find a pulse in my foot wasn't good."

Bonnie went to her local ER, where a vascular surgeon performed an arteriogram - an x-ray of the arteries - of her leg and discovered a large cyst sitting in the soft tissue of Bonnie's calf.

Because of the cyst, the blood flow to Bonnie's foot was severely diminished, so the surgeon went in and removed the cyst. She spent the night in the hospital, and feeling fine, went home the next day.

"As soon as I got home, I took a few steps in my backyard and felt the same symptoms I had before."

Bonnie went back to the same doctor and reported having the same symptoms. He advised her to take a certain medication. She disagreed with his suggestion, because in her experience as a nurse, she knew that cysts tend to occur in clusters.

A second opinion may save your life.

"I decided to try a new doctor, who performed more exhaustive diagnostic studies that revealed cysts in my leg that looked like a cluster of grapes."

The cyst cluster involved the back of Bonnie's knee joint, so a team of surgeons — her vascular surgeon and an orthopedic surgeon — removed the cysts. During this surgery, they put in a vein graft to replace the area that was bottlenecked and damaged.

"The vein graft failed, and I was back in the hospital within a couple of weeks."

Bonnie continued to experience problems with her grafts for years. No less than 10 times in five years, she had to go in and have the graft de-clotted. She knew she had to try something different if she was to ever have a normal life again.

"I thought: My gosh, I live a little over an hour away from a world-class medical center, why have I been settling for this over and over again?"

After making the decision to seek new advice and treatment at Penn Medicine's Heart and Vascular Center, Bonnie met with Dr. Benjamin Jackson. Dr. Jackson discovered that Bonnie's body was rejecting her artificial vein graft, so he performed an autograft, a procedure in which tissue from Bonnie's own body is transplanted to her leg.

"I've been a nurse for 38 years, and I can tell you: from the doctors and surgeons to the formidable nursing staff, they deliver world-class care at Penn Medicine."

After all this time, Bonnie has finally gotten her life back. She credits her recovery, after years of failures, to Dr. Jackson's confidence and surgical expertise. And Penn's amazing nursing staff. Today, Bonnie walks three miles a day, six or seven days a week. She continues to work as a nurse, on her feet for eight hours a day.

"I feel like Penn gave me my life back, there are no limitations to what I can do now!"