Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
On Tuesday I was thrilled to find out that after 4 months of Warfarin the big clot behind my knee is totally gone and the tech said he couldn't even see any evidence that it had been there before which means it has completely healed. So awesome to be heading into the new year with no clots (found out a couple weeks ago my many PEs have cleared as well).
With that said - I'm still having swelling and pain in that leg behind my knee and calf. I don't assume that will go away right away - even if it has healed completely in terms of blood flow I would think your veins aren't going to feel like new right away and your leg has to get used to the newly restored functionality. I haven't had a chance to see my Hematologist since my doppler on Tuesday but I was curious what experiences others have had with leg pain after their DVT is gone. Is it something that gradually goes away? Do you find that continuing to wear compression stockings/socks helps?
I've done everything I possibly can up to this point to encourage the healing process - wearing the stockings every day, elevating my legs when I can, ankle circles and walking around at work - and I want to continue to do what I can to make my leg happy and ensure I don't have any long-term side effects.
Advice, experience and medical know-how is welcomed!
With that said - I'm still having swelling and pain in that leg behind my knee and calf. I don't assume that will go away right away - even if it has healed completely in terms of blood flow I would think your veins aren't going to feel like new right away and your leg has to get used to the newly restored functionality. I haven't had a chance to see my Hematologist since my doppler on Tuesday but I was curious what experiences others have had with leg pain after their DVT is gone. Is it something that gradually goes away? Do you find that continuing to wear compression stockings/socks helps?
I've done everything I possibly can up to this point to encourage the healing process - wearing the stockings every day, elevating my legs when I can, ankle circles and walking around at work - and I want to continue to do what I can to make my leg happy and ensure I don't have any long-term side effects.
Advice, experience and medical know-how is welcomed!
I didn't wear my compression stocking as long as I was supposed to, something which I regret, simply because I wish I'd given my veins better support over the past year. The stocking was more intended to keep my veins supported during recovery given the blockage, more than preventing more DVT. I can only imagine what this means for me in the long run (varicose!). I always make sure I wear tights that can 'hold me' during exercise which helps a lot. I notice the swelling is not so bad or sometimes even non existent when I do this. I hope this helps :)
Kaye