On Sunday, my friend Holly (or as Brandon calls her, Jolly) had to take me to the ER while Brandon stayed back with the kids. I woke up that morning with intermittent stabbing pains in my upper inner thigh, and by the time I was done teaching at church I could barely stand to walk. The vein in my upper leg was slightly swollen and solid at this point, so I knew I had to be seen.
Well, despite the fact that I am still in my twenties (at least for a few months), I was diagnosed with superficial thrombophlebitis, otherwise known as a blood clot in a vein that isn't a major one. At the time, my only instructions were to take ibuprofen regularly and move as often as possible. I was also prescribed a narcotic for pain.
Unfortunately, by Tuesday afternoon, almost the entire length of my vein was rock solid and VERY painful. I was seen immediately by my regular doctor, along with a few other doctors in her practice. They also conference-called a vascular surgeon. It was determined that another ultrasound was in order to make sure the clot wasn't moving to a deep vein.
The good news is that while the clot is building up and moving down my leg, it doesn't seem to be moving towards my major vein in the groin area. While they are still concerned with the fact that the clot is building, the level of concern isn't as high when it isn't moving towards a major vein. The bad news is that the clot doesn't seem to want to go away. The pain is MUCH better, but my vein is still rock solid. Until it goes away, there will always be concern that it could travel. Currently, I am taking ibuprofen around the clock because it is considered a low-grade blood thinner. I am also trying to move as much as I can. I ran today for the first time since this started, but I only made it a mile before I had to call it quits because of the pain. On Wednesday, I will be seen again by a vascular surgeon. If the clot is still there, I will most likely be started on regular blood thinners. I really hope to avoid this, but if the clot isn't dissolving by then, I don't think I have much choice.
Leave it to my family to have more health complications. Did I mention that one of my tonsils is growing back? Yep, it's true. Despite the fact that I had them removed when I was ten, one of them is growing back. I bet you didn't know I had secret powers like those of the X-men group...
I digress.
In the meantime, I am trying to think happy thoughts and follow the doctor's orders to the best of my ability. I am strangely calm about the whole ordeal, which is nice for a change :) I also felt very validated when I was told by the vascular surgeon that the amount of running I normally do has helped me avoid further complications. (Too bad that was after he told me I had veins of a 60 year old. Thank you, Rash Genes.)
