The Day My Life Changed!

I suffered a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) in September 2002.  That day, my life really did change!

I’d been off sick for a week because I had a piercing pain in my left side and my left testicle.  Two pinpoints of pain that bothered me all the time and occasionally doubled me up with pain.  It had started ten days earlier and had been getting slowly worse.

I had been to my GP’s and had a working diagnosis of Epididymitis.  Although the only symptom I had was pain, at the time this seemed like a reasonable thing to assume.  However, ten days after the original symptoms surfaced, in the middle of the afternoon, I collapsed in the kitchen.  This time the pain really was excruciating and it didn’t go away like the earlier pinpoint pain had done.

The doctor came out to the house and, after scratching his head for a little while, decided I should go up to the Infirmary for a specialist to have a look at me.  At that time all he could think of was a very strange presentation of Appendicitis.

Up at the hospital, the pain continued to get worse.  I was throwing up because of the pain and started to drift in and out of consciousness.  They didn’t have  any more of an idea what was wrong but they did at least treat the symptoms.  The put me on a drip and gave me pain killers and something to stop me being sick.  That was really it.  By this time it was getting quite late, so they tried to get me comfortable.

The next day was a little surreal.  I was sent for an ultrasound of my abdomen.  Nothing was found, but by lunchtime, my left leg had started to swell up a little.  By the middle of the afternoon, my knee had doubled in size and, along with the rest of my leg, it continued to get larger for the rest of the day.

By the time the doc’s came round for their early evening round, they had no qualms in telling me I had a DVT.  Over the next few days I had another Ultrasound (done by the same chap who was now very embarrassed!), a CT scan, an MRI and back to the CT machine for a Venogram.  All these tests confirmed that I had a DVT that stretched, pretty much, from my belly button to my left knee.  They told me this was quite large!  It did explain the embarrassment of the Ultrasound guy that missed it!

I was immediatly started on Warfarin (I had already been given Heparin like all hopital in-patients) and told that my feet should be elevated at all times, so I should stay in bed and my feet should not touch the floor.  By this time I was unable to put any weight on my left leg, so I wasn’t walking far anyway!

The doc that did the morning round told me I’d probably be in hospital for about three weeks but reassured me my legs were safe (up until that point I’d not realised they were in any danger!).

After that things started to settle down again.  I was told that I would need to stay in hospital for 3 weeks bed rest.  During this time I would see a Physiotherapist, get my Warfarin sorted out and get measured for compression stockings.  In the end, it was waiting for stockings that delayed my discharge from hospital.  I was told that my feet should NEVER touch the ground without the stockings on and I should never stand still.  If I was standing, I should always be moving and if I wasn’t moving, my feet should be elevated.

Related posts:

1. Life Goes On.
2. Spinal Stimulator version 2
3. Deep Vein Thrombosis – DVT
4. Stimulator Fitting
5. Stimulator Assessment 2

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