I've been healthy my whole life.  No allergies, no major illnesses, just a broken bone or sprained ankle.  I'm healthy beyond healthy - I've been an athlete since I was 5 and even went to the NCAA championships twice in rowing.  And then the clot found me.  Everyone I know is shocked, shocked to hear that it could happen to me.  I have a few factors that led to it:  I was on birth control pills (ortho/novum 1/35 for 10 years), I had flown the day before the pain in my calf presented itself (but only a 2.5 hour flight), and I had bruises on my legs from soccer.  Plus, I don't drink a lot of fluids.  I am negative for any of the genetic factors.How am I coping?  I'm a control freak - I need to be in control of everything.  So I'm taking control of my brain again.  Plus - I'm a logical person and for some reason, I've logically figured out what happened and the liklihood of it happening again.Plus there are so many people out there who have survived this, now I get to be one of them and share the positive story too.  Knowing there are so many out there who have survived - big help.