Deep Vein Thrombosis – DVT

Disability and DVT, My Treatment Add comments

Jan 242009

After a three week stay in hospital, I was discharged home and spent the next four months convalescing. The swelling in my left leg had gone down a lot but the leg was still significantly swollen. I found walking particularly difficult and the pain levels were high. Within a couple of weeks of me being discharged, my right leg also started to swell up. I’d been discharged with a stocking for my left leg. Now I had a pair!

I was told that I had a large blood clot, or Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in my abdomen and left leg. In simple terms, the clot extended from my belly button to my left knee. This was quite large and was having a significant effect on the flow of blood trying to leave my legs.

Very basically, the largest veins in your legs are deep inside the leg. Hence ‘Deep Vein’. These two veins join together in your abdomen and form the Inferior Vena Cava. This is the largest vein in your body and mine was completely blocked!

I was advised to exercise as much as possible because the increased blood flow caused by activity would hopefully ‘force’ it’s way through or round this blockage. The problem was that this caused (and still causes) a great deal of pain.

When your heart beats, it ‘pushes’ blood out to the extremities of your body. Because our legs and the veins inside them are large, the heart cannot produce enough pressure to push the blood all the way our to your feet and all the way back again. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to!

Inside these large leg veins, there is a series of valves. These valves make sure that the blood in the vein only flows in one direction – back towards the heart. The process is also helped by the ‘Calf Muscle Pump. As you walk or run, the muscle creates a pump action by increasing the blood pressure in the vein and then relaxing. Every time the pressure increases, blood is ’squeezed’ up the vein. The valves then stop it flowing back the way it came. That’s the theory!

In my left leg, the clot damaged these valves. This means that blood can (and does) travel in both directions. Combined with the fact that sections of my veins are still blocked by the clot and hopefully you’re starting to get the idea! So, when I walk, blood flows into my leg veins as it should but it can’t get out again. This leads to a build up of ‘back pressure’ which in turn put the vein walls under pressure and this causes pain. Lots of pain. Especially after exercise/walking.