What this feels like when you get it
I have
depression and am medicating for that. Side effects and symptoms are
weight gain and odd sleep patterns. This set me up for the
DVT. I had been awake over 24 hours and then slept 17 hours. When I woke up I was in
serious pain.
The pain was in my left lower leg and foot, all the way up to my knee and a little line up the inside of my thigh. It was a throbbing burning sensation. My lower leg was also somewhat swollen, felt a little hard to the touch, didn’t relax at all. It wasn’t so big as to prevent me from dressing, just a little swollen and firmer to the touch than my other leg. I was able to walk to the car that took me to hospital, but it hurt a lot at each step.
I described the pain to the doctors as like having knife wounds all over my lower leg. After a wait I was put on a gurney but my leg wasn’t raised. In all the many hours I was at the hospital I wasn’t given any painkillers, but found out later that it would have been ok after the initial diagnosis to have used paracetamol or equivalent. I was in pain the whole time at the hospital and didn’t notice any lessening in pain level the next couple of days except with painkillers. They diagnosed the DVT using ultrasound scanning, which showed the thrombosis running the whole length of my inner thigh. I was given anticoagulant medicines and told I should be fully recovered after 6 months.
During the following two weeks the pain lessened slowly, and let me walk almost normally at least for shorter stretches. After that the pain has been gone except when I take a longish walk. I wear a constraining sock to help my circulation.
This is only meant as a description of how the thrombosis felt for me, symptoms vary.