This damn pain in my right leg.
A while back, while my husband was working on my calf muscle, he mentioned that my calf muscle was really hot. He acted all freaked out and told me I should call my surgeon. Of course, this is my husband, who freaks out worse than I do over teeny tiny things. I told him I would, but then I didn't, and fortunately my husband has a short memory. I have to admit that my calf did feel warm to the touch, but that didn't seem like something my surgeon needed to know about.
Anyway, fast forward to today. My husband and daughter left yesterday to go camping with some friends, and this morning I drove my son up to drop him off at the camp site. (The camp site is right next to the river, and we thought two nights with an almost three year old next to a river would be a bit much, but that one night would be okay.) When I woke up, I noticed that the pain in my leg was probably a little worse than yesterday, but still manageable. I did a lot of walking yesterday, so I was thinking I was just sore. Or whatever.
I got back from dropping my son off this afternoon and realized I needed to eat something before going to PT. I decided to fix myself some potatoes, only I went into the pantry to discover that my husband had taken the whole freaking bag of potatoes with him. Since my stomach was set on potatoes, I decided to dig some out of my garden; after all, the restrictions on my thigh flexion have been lifted, so I can squat now as long as it doesn't hurt. Unfortunately, as I squatted down, I noticed that it did hurt, and quite a bit, but not because of my hip. It hurt when the back of my thigh pushed up against my calf, which I quickly realized was because the back of my leg, and especially the back of my knee, are totally swollen. Nevertheless, I managed to dig the potatoes out and grab a bite to eat before heading off to PT. While I was eating, I iced the back of my knee, because I really wanted to have a great PT session.
My appointment today was with the friendly PT assistant, Jay, whom I just adore. (I'm pretty sure everyone does.) However, I was a little worried because although he is the life of the PT room, I've only worked with him once before, so I wasn't sure how aware he was of my ongoing leg pain, and I felt like it was important for him to at least know. My regular PT knows about this pain and although he has never specifically done anything about it, he is aware of it. So I told Jay about the pain and swelling first thing, and he took a 'let's proceed with caution' attitude, which was fine. I rode the bike and then did some standing up exercises and felt okay. However, while I was doing them, Jay commented, 'Your right ankle is really swollen.' I looked down, and sure enough, it really was. WTF? My ankle doesn't even hurt, yet it was definitely ballooned out to the point that Jay noticed it from across the room.
After that, I went to do some stretching, and there was one particular stretch that was soooo uncomfortable, I actually started crying. I don't know why I started crying; honestly, it didn't hurt that bad. I think it was more just because I am soooo stressed out right about now and also frustrated because I feel like this damn leg pain is the only thing that is really holding me back. And while the pain is not horrendous, it just won't let up no matter what I do, and no one seems to know what it is. Fortunately no one actually saw me crying, but Jay could tell I was in pain and told me to stop. Then he said that he was going to try to do some soft tissue work, AKA massage, on my leg, to see if that would help.
So I rolled over, and he put some massage cream on the back of my knee and on my calf, asked me a few questions about where my pain was, and then said he would be right back. A few minutes later, he returned with AJ, my 'regular' PT. They both stood there for a minute, then AJ asked me to roll over, and poked around a little bit, and asked me a few more questions. Eventually, Jay apologized, and said he would be right back, and he and AJ stepped around the corner. At that point I was thinking, Just give me my damn massage so we can get this show on the road. LOL. When Jay came back, it was him, AJ, and some other guy, who introduced himself as Kevin, a physician assistant. Kevin repeated a lot of what Jay and AJ had done, then spoke briefly with AJ. They asked me to sit up, and then told me that while they did not want alarm me, they all agreed that I needed to go to the hospital and have an ultrasound to rule out the possibility that I had a blood clot. As Kevin explained (which I sort of already knew), there are three huge risk factors for blood clots: smoking, birth control, and surgery. And I had two of the three, plus pain and swelling in the most common area for blood clots. So while they did not really think this is what it was, and were hopeful that the ultrasound would 'just be a waste of my time,' they could not rule it out, and were not okay proceeding with any sort of treatment until this had been ruled out.
I mentioned that I had told my doctor about my pain at my two-week post-op appointment, and he seemed confident it wasn't a blood clot. Although, interestingly enough, the stretching exercise that I was doing with the PTA that brought me to tears was very similar to the 'test' that my surgeon did on me at my post-op appointment. And one of the reasons he definitively concluded that it was not a blood clot was because 'If it were a blood clot, that would have hurt a lot.' (These are times when I worry about a high pain tolerance.) Anyways, both AJ and Kevin said that although my doctor wasn't in this afternoon, they were certain this was what he would have wanted as well. They repeated that they really didn't think it was a blood clot, and that I should not freak out, but that they needed to rule it out for sure. Because if it's not a blood clot, it's just a waste of time (and money, I add), but if it IS a blood clot, it is a potentially life-threatening situation, so it is worth it to know for sure.
Apparently it was too late in the afternoon to schedule an ultrasound, so I am going in tomorrow at 7:45 AM. This was actually good news for me, because I have book club tonight, which I sooo look forward to, and I did not want to miss book club while stuck in the hospital waiting to have some ultrasound for a condition I probably don't have. And with that said, I am off to book club. It is five blocks away, and I am attempting to walk there, so wish me luck.
No comments:
Post a Comment