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Life After Blood Clots

Life can change in the blink of an eye.

By Susana ShadowsPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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Four years ago at the age of 50, I had a strange thing happen to me—one I would have never expected, but has changed my life considerably since.

It was December 18, a warm and sunny day considering the month. I had woke up that morning feeling as if I had a bit of a charlie horse in my left leg. It was annoying, but nothing that alarmed me.

I had gone about my day, running errands and doing a few things to get ready for Christmas. I stopped in at my daughter's house to say, "Hi," and chat. We got to talking about my leg and how I felt as if I had pulled a muscle.

Dummy me, I even sat down on the floor trying to massage and stretch my leg out. My daughter kept asking me questions about my leg. She asked if it felt hot to touch, if it was swollen, things like that.

It actually did feel warm to touch and if it was swollen it was not enough to notice. I kept on with my day. But three hours later as I was trying to walk upstairs at my house, I suddenly felt very strange.

I was feeling very weak, sweating, and I had no strength at all in my leg. I called my son and told him something felt wrong and I needed to go to the emergency room.

He drove me to the hospital where I sat in an emergency room cubicle for three hours before a doctor finally came in. She stated that she felt it was my sciatica, but wanted to run a few blood tests, one to check for blood clots.

The nurse came in and drew several tubes of blood and I asked her how long would it take before they knew if it was or was not a blood clot. She said it only takes about ten minutes and I would know if it was a blood clot if they sent in an ultrasound machine.

Five minutes later, here comes the ultrasound tech and machine. He scanned my entire left leg for several minutes, moved to my abdomen and then my right leg. I asked him what he saw. He said he is not really supposed to say anything and that the doctor would fill me in. After persuading him a couple of minutes more he said to me, "Oh, honey, you have a large blood clot from your left ankle up to your thigh, a smaller clot in your right leg, and a good sized clot in your abdomen."

I started to cry; I was terrified. My daughter, who is a radiologist, came to the hospital to be with me. I was not allowed to move. I was given a large dose of the blood thinner Xarelto.

By this time I had been at the hospital for several hours and needed to go to the bathroom to pee. This was a no from the nurse. She then wheeled in a portable potty chair and I had to use it. Talk about humiliating!

Finally, the doctor returned telling me I had serious blood clots and she wanted me to take the blood thinner the rest of the night. I was also not to use the stairs and was supposed to stay sitting or lying down. I was also told to contact my family doctor first thing in the morning.

I was forced to stay at my daughter's home because of the stairs. I was very upset and afraid about what all of this meant. By 7 AM, my family doctor was on the phone with me telling me to get to his office ASAP.

He took me straight in, bypassing his already full waiting room of patients. He explained to me that I had a very serious and potentially dangerous condition with the blood clots and suggested I go to the OSU hospital to a specialist who would remove the clots.

Two days later on December 20, just days before Christmas, my sons drove me to the hospital to see a Dr. Jolly (great holiday name). I was given a twilight sleepy time drug and taken into the operating room.

He then attempted to bust the clots by leading a wire through my ankle and through the veins. This took quite a while. And while I was very relaxed, I knew something was going on.

The doctors quickly added more medication into my I.V. and threw a sheet over my face, turning my head to the left. They then attempted to move the wire through the veins in my neck.

This was also unsuccessful. The doctors then explained to me that for some unknown reason that I did not have a normal inferior vena cava system.

He explained that this is a rare condition, but not unheard of. He went on to tell me that instead of the normal large vein in my left leg that my body had compensated and developed thousands of small veins. This is why he could not get the wire through to bust up the clots.

"Now what?" I asked. He said I needed to be on bed rest for at least three to four weeks and on blood thinners for life. Needless to say, I went back to my daughter's house to stay a while, rest, and start my new life on blood thinners.

A month later I went for another ultrasound; the clots were gone. I was relieved. I thought, this is easy enough and I got through it. Wrong. While it has been for years since I have had any clots, life is not back to where it was at all.

There was a lot of damage done to my veins. I continue to have a lot of pain in my legs from time to time, and standing for long periods of time, or walking far distances is harder than it ever was.

My kids have a hard time understanding some days that my legs are just not the same, they feel like it is mostly in my head. I am super cautious that I do not bang my head on anything, and careful not to cut myself for fear of bleeding to death.

Having blood clots has really changed my life in ways that I am not happy about. The daily blood thinners have caused my hair to thin, weight gain, and tire me out easily.

However, I must say that the above issues are far better than the consequences that could occur.

wellness
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About the Creator

Susana Shadows

A woman of the world who feels like she has already lived many lifetimes and adventures in just a handful of decades.

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