Today I have a pulled muscle in the back of my calf... I think. I have done nothing to pull a muscle and it's been getting more painful all day. Legs are the same colour (although I can't see the bit that hurts). I am on aspirin daily and I've taken 150mg this evening. I have only had one dvt and that was 20 years ago while (and as a result of) taking the pill. I know that it's probably nothing more than a simple muscle strain but the paranoia fairy is paying me a visit.
Does anyone else get paranoid about the simplest things? My hubby wants me to phone out of hours gp just in case but seriously, what are the chances they will know anything?
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phoenix77
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I think your hubby is right and you should phone them and explain that you have APS and are concerned that you might have a DVT. Better to get it checked out.
I have got hubby to check and there is no redness, swelling or excessive heat in the area so (considering our nearest A&E is 10 miles away and likely to heaving on a Friday night) I am going to wait until morning. I have taken my aspirin so I'm not too worried. If there is no change or any worsening tomorrow morning I will go to get it checked.
You have been diagnosed APS and your DVT 20 years ago might be due to an early APS and not the pill. It could be but you never know for sure.
Good that you have a wise husband that helps you when you fee l"paranoia". I can tell you we all get paranoia with this strange illness. At least I do some times.
I agree with the Administrators. Get it chequed! Hope also you have an APS-doctor that "gets" what you tell him/her.
My first DVT felt exactly like a pulled muscle. Like you, no redness, no swelling -- nothing erxternal at all. It was "nothing." But the next morning I woke with a profound feeling of unease. I felt compelled to find an excuse to phone up my physician Father and ask how he was? how were my half brothers? hows the dog? Finally, he asked me, "Why did you call? What's wrong?" I told him about this silly leg pain which had to be a pulled muscle.
He then asked me "to extend the unpainful leg straight, with the knee straight, and the ankle pointing upward. Then to point the toes back toward my head by flexing the ankle while keeeping the knee straight. Note what it feels like. Now do the same on the other side. Does it feel different?" I told him that yes, it didn't hurt but it did feel different . . . "because" I added, " I must have pulled some muscle somewhere."
He quietly disagreed to me and asked for my husband's work number and also (this is the AMAZING part! my Mom -- his ex-wife's number.) He told me to lie down on the couch and turn on the home shopping network and look for cheap stuff he could buy for upcoming presents for all his brothers and sisters. And to take notes. (Right. Boring? Ridiculous? Exactly -- that was the idea!)
Then he phoned my husband and told him to go home immediately. He phoned a vascular surgeon he knew and arranged for me to be seen. He phoned my Mom and asked her to pick up and baby sit the kids. I was fetched, transported and within an hour laying on my back with blood pressure cuffs around both ankles and -- I had a DVT. Off I went next door to the hospital and my first DVT experience.
And the diagnosis and intervention came only because Ihad this bizarre, paranoid feeling that even though it was just a pulled muscle I needed to talk to my Dad about it. My Father later told me that he calls such incidents the "Oh, by the way. . . " moments. Time and time he has found that patients in for a routine exam, or to treat a minor sprain or such would say, just as he turned to leave, " Doc? Oh, by the way . . . "
"And here I would put the chart down, sit down and lean back as if I had all the time in thhe world --even if I was in a rush -- because here is where the patient's unconscious was about to tell me about an easily dismissed symptom which was actually a vital clue to an incipient, hidden ailment which could, if left unnotieced and untreted, turn into a life threatoning condition."
So . . .are you paranoid? Yes. Is that bad? NO. Should you go have your insignificant pain inspected by a doctor? Absolutely!
Well, don't I feel silly for wasting everyone's time. A good night's sleep and while the pain isn't gone it is vastly improved. So another false alarm I guess (thank goodness). I will still keep a slightly paranoid eye on it though and any worsening will result in a trip to the doc.
All I have to worry about today is this rotten fatigue. I got up had my hair cut and went food shopping. A standard sort of a saturday morning for most people but it wiped me out to the point where I needed 3 hours sleep before doing anything else. My nan had more energy than me in the years before she died and she was in her late 90s.
I'm so all over the place with this APS at the moment. For years it was just something I had which didn't really impact my day to day life much. Now, since I have been told it is the most likely cause of my joint and muscle pains and chronic fatigue, it is a major focus once again. The trouble is that no-one can tell me if the emergence of the low level symptoms make it more likely that I will have a clotting incident.
I had a DVT 23 years ago. By the time I got to hospital the pain had eased and they dismissed it. Just before I was sent home the pain started and thankfully my Mum was with me and insisted that I be seen by a more senior Doctor. He knew immediately I had a DVT and started me on Heparin. Even though the pain eases you should still be checked out especially if you have APS.
The pain is back so I called my gp this morning. I am now waiting for the local hospital to give me a call to go in for a scan. I am pretty sure at this stage that it is nothing but I will feel better once the scan confirms it.
I'm fed up with this waiting and wondering. I don't know how much longer I can carry on like this, aches and pains and memory problems, concentration issues and the horrific fatigue that is ruining what is left of my life.
Due to the nature of this disease a pain like this does need scrutiny, and perhaps they can also bring your next review forward a bit, and you can bring up all the symptoms you are currently experiencing. Let us know how it goes. MaryF
I think you need an APS-doctor and you can look at pinned posts and find someone perhaps in your aria. I was on Aspirin but had to switch to warfarin when my symptoms got worse. It is very important that you take it seriosly so you will not have a DVT or a stroke. Hope you get your scan SOON as we all thought you should be checked 3 days ago.
I wish you good luck and to find an APS-specialist so you do not have to worry. You are not paranoid!
I finally got the scan today after some epic paperwork messups at the hospital left me worrying for an extra 48 hours. Anyway the good news is no DVT!! The not so good news is that it's something called a Baker's cyst. Apparently this mimics the symptoms of dvt and can increase the risk of dvt occurring in the future. It's painful and could either go away on it's own or keep getting worse until it needs to be operated on. There is no way of knowing which it will do and even if it does get better on its own it could take a year or more.
I hope you'll all understand that I am feeling a little sorry for myself this evening. My leg has been poked and prodded to the point where it feels like I've been kicked by a horse. Just once I would like to go to see a doctor and be told that it's something really simple which will clear up in a couple of weeks.
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