Please continue to have hope!! The future is bright and there's no reason to doubt that.

Try to relax , take a deep breath and don't trouble yourself over this stuff one more second longer. Enjoy the holiday and be good to yourself. You are going to be fine.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

rmb, you have a gifth, the way you put things into words is great. This is the hardest Christmas I have ever had. I was almost in tears trying to figure out what to dress today looking to my compression stockings, thinking 'will I need these all my life?' 4 months ago I didn't even know what a DVT was...but your words give me hope, they calm me down. Your posts are always so positive!
Sometimes that's just enough, to believe that everything is going to be alright...
Mathy

Jerry,
I used to think that having a DVT was the end of the world. Ten years later I got another one in the other leg.
Four years ago my younger sister was diagnosed with brain tumors. She was dead one year later.
I am sure she would have traded places with me in a nanosecond.
I get up every day with a positive attitude and just try to live my life, one day at a time.
At my age, 65, I have little time to dwell on negative things.
I exercise most days by walking or riding my stationary bike.
I done been doing this kind of exercise for over 25 years with the exception of when I had DVT #1 and was hardly able to walk at all.
Give it time. 17 months is not that long a period of time.
Things will get better.

Mathy, that's kind of you to say and I'm glad what I said helped you. I'm not a super sunshine-y person by nature. In fact, I'm a stone cold realist with pretty much everything which is why I recognize things are what they are and how you see things is is how you find a way to move forward. Like you, I do believe sometimes it's enough to believe everything is going to be alright. Without knowledge of what's in store for any of us, why not believe that? I mean, the alternative is to think everything is never going to be ok again, and I can't think of anything more soul crushing than that.

Everyone here can be a light here for each other but you have to be your own light too

Merry Christmas!

Ya, just wanted to second RMB's comment that this forum includes anecdotal narratives that are good for supplementing, not replacing, research that must be evaluated critically-- some research is better than others, and measures PTS in different ways. And yes, a better take-away is that not everyone gets PTS and not every case of PTS is severe.

What seemed to help the most is walking. If I'm in too much pain to ski or body board or ride a bike, I swim or walk. The worst days are this time of year, when it's harder to find a heated pool for swimming. My worst day is maybe 15 minutes of brisk hill walking, and another 20 walking on the flats and even that is painful, but I know I have to do it. And even if PTS does get worse, your overall physical condition can improve if you can find some kind of exercise that's not too agonizing.

Jerry, good to hear from you! I am glad you are optimistic, and I think you have good reason to be.