Lets Twist Again (Blood Clot)

So I thought I’d better update the story of the twisted ankle with the details of a quite worrisome discovery, a blood clot in my leg.

A couple of weeks or so after I had a good go at breaking my ankle, but not quite succeeding (details here), I started noticing a cramp like pain in the top of my right leg, not too much at this point, just a ‘niggle’ and therefore really nothing a grown man like I should worry about.

This slowly increased to a point that it was more painful than my now healing ankle [I could comfortably walk on this now].

A brief search on t’Internet threw up a lot of potential causes for this, mainly DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis), but I didn’t seem to have any but one of the symptoms, just the cramp-like pain, so I dismissed this as a possibility.

Mentioning this to my lovely significant other she said I “shouldn’t worry about it” as it was “probably my leg having to compensate” for being off the ankle for a while – and I was happy to agree with that assumption, after all, it wasn’t a pain we all haven’t felt at sometime (cramp), just it’s longevity was different.

A couple more days passed by, and as she readied herself for a regular trip out on the bike, I settled in for a night on the sofa with a goo geek movie – sadly this wasn’t to come to pass.

After about 30 mins or so my leg (which was by now slightly swollen at the calf, quite hot and sore to touch), decided to suddenly cause my foot to go cold, rapidly, and the pain became unbearable.

So I called the NHS 111 service to ask for some guidance, a fairly brief conversation and the instruction to “get myself to A&E within the next 6 hours” got me a little worried – but off I dutifully trotted.

Arriving at A&E I sat and waited for some time [nothing unusual there then], until the nurse poked, prodded and sent me directly to Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) with a letter suggesting I had a problem – namely a potential blood clot in my leg.

BRI sat me in their waiting area for a while, took some blood samples and had me waiting again – I had gone to BRI via home to ask my girlfriend to take me, this was a very good idea as it turns out.

After nearly 3 hours waiting for the blood results (!) we were ushered into a cubicle for some more waiting. Someone in the cubicle next door at this point was complaining about the wait also and the fact that they dismissed him with nothing, the last time he was there.

Finally the doctor came to discuss his findings, which apparently were inconclusive, but basically said that I might have a clot, but would need an ultrasound to confirm (why they didn’t just do this to start with still baffles me), and supplied some blood thinning drugs along with some pain meds.

The following day I was called and an ultrasound appointment arranged, which confirmed that I did indeed have a large blood clot just behind my right knee, and I would have to “keep taking the tablets” and attend a DVT clinic (not gone yet), and potentially wear a compression sock for 2 years. Nice! [not].

So, after a brief walk to the bank, I end up with a potentially life threatening condition and on some drugs that require me to carry a “Patient Alert” card in case I’m involved in an accident, which also cause me to go dizzy at the drop of a hat, and have me having to sit down suddenly or risk fainting.

Right now I’m sitting here with a highly painful leg, feeling slightly dizzy and somewhat worried…