A blood clot stuck in a vein or DVT is not a common worry for a younger healthy person. Usually it’s associated with trauma, poor health, long haul trucking, or the elderly. Several of these things have one thing in common: being sedentary. When a person considers that as a risk factor, the fact that wheelchair bound people also have a higher risk factor shouldn’t be that big of a shock. Being unable to move is a danger to health at any age and I became an unfortunate statistic to it.

Getting DVT was a health crisis that came out of nowhere. Even worse, it disguised itself as a much less severe issue first. I woke up one morning thinking that I slept on my leg wrong. It was sore but not suspiciously so. An achy tenderness in my lower left thigh and just below my knee. I did what anyone else might do and shrugged it off. While I couldn’t have known better at that point, that was a bad decision.

Pain crept up suddenly in the evening. I very quickly found myself leaning back in my chair and panting from the pain. By that point it was late in the evening. My mom took my temperature and heart rate. Everything was within a healthy range so we both decided to go to the ER the next day. I was given Tylenol and went to bed.

The pain had gone back down to a lower level by the next morning. It was less than the hyperventilating bad level but greater than an ache. It was now an irritated throb. I felt stupid for going to the ER but went anyway. I wanted the pain from the night before to be validated and feared it returning. The triage nurse didn’t seem to think an owie leg that big of a deal as it took me five hours to get seen. The ER doctor suspected a DVT immediately based on what I experienced. I was sent for a leg ultrasound.

Leg ultrasounds are mildly unpleasant on an unhurt leg but barely tolerable on a sore one. The ultrasound wand has to be pressed into the skin harder than expected to show deeper structure. The ultrasound technician spent longer in one area on my sore leg then anywhere else. I saw her eyebrows crease and heard the sound of her taking screen grabs of the ultrasound. I asked if she found something and received a reply of “I’m sorry. You’ll have to hear the findings from the doctor”. I knew at that point that my suspicion was correct and something was in fact wrong. Maybe the average person would be panicking at that point but all I felt was relief. I felt validated and correct. I was given a prescription for a blood thinner and sent home.

I was only home for a few days before I was back in the ER. It was late in the evening when the pain got so much worse. It was so bad that even simply breathing in seemed to spike the pain. Only leaning all the way foward in a seated semi fetal position seemed to help just enough to let me catch a breath. I couldn’t continue like that, it was impossible. I was treated by a fantastic doctor named Dr Lemon and given a shot of Toradol. That stuff is pure magic and it took my pain level down from a 9/10 to a zero in 15 minutes. Even chronic pain I had that was unrelated was eliminated. I was given a hydrocodone and gabba pentin prescription.

So began a series of foggy months. I survived off of the pain relief of hydrocodone even though I hate it’s other effects. Twice more I had to be rushed to the ER when even the hydrocodone wasn’t enough. I got more Toradol again and continued to push on. I found out that I actually had two blood clots even though the first doctor didn’t say anything about there being multiple. Both cleared up with the blood thinner medicine. Pain turned into sciatica triggered by the DVT. I got blood tests for a time and a second ultrasound but there was no sign of further clots. I was taken off the blood thinner with time.

Two years later I was finally totally pain free. I pray to God for no repeat of the experience. Never regret your circulation if you can help it.