Deep vein thrombosis? Trying to decide if I should be scared. I crashed my mountain bike a week ago, and managed to hit my calf on the pedal. Extremely hard. I would have cried, but I was afraid someone on BPL would find out. Finished the ride, iced it a few days, started bruising. Still hurts a week later, and it looks like it's still bruising. Went to the doc, she wants me to get an echo-something or other in the am. Doc didn't seem to alarmed, but I'm started to wonder if I should start acting my age more.

Your age gave you the wisdom to see the doctor. But no need to grow up. Get better and get back out there!

Edit: I would have cried. After cursing a blue streak. A blue streak, like that bruise. Ouch!

Edited by kthompson on 11/08/2012 21:40:51 MST.

I'm no doctor, but I do have an N=1 anecdote:

Friend goes to doctor, suspecting DVT in calf. Cat scan is done. No DVT is detected in cat scan. Friend is sent home.

Three days later, friend feels awful, is admitted to hospital with pulmonary embolism.
Finds out that while cat scans can detect DVT in most locations, many cat scans miss a DVT IN THE CALF, as everything there is so tightly knotted. 10% of pulmonary embolism patients die; my friend survived.

For the calf, you need an MRI to more reliably detect DVT.

Lotsa hospitals and HMOs will try to skimp on MRI and give you cat scan - just to save themselves money.

Short-term thinking.

You're already acting your age when you start posting about your ailments online. ;)

The doctor wants you to have a ultrasound which is normally a reliable way to detect DVT. Speeking from personal experience get the scan. It will only tke 30 minutes. If it is a minor clot the doctor could put you on perscription strenght blood thinners. If it is a bad one they would put you in the hospital and administer a heprin drip (one of the strongest blood thinners available). Once they are sure you are responding to the treatment you will be sent home with a perscripiton blood thinner. For my last DVT the hospital stay was one day.

The faster you get it treated the lower the risk of permanent damage to the vains in your leg. In my case I had injured my leg and couldn't walk for several weeks. During that time the blood clot formed and I had no symptoms until about a month and half later when it grown to a larg size. That did some permanent damage to my leg and resently another formed in my leg but I didn't know it until a piece broke off and got stuck in my lungs causing breathing problems. Due to the damage already done I will be on blood thinners for life.

Edited by Surf on 11/09/2012 14:11:48 MST.

Had the ultrasound, no clots. So I guess this just means.........I'm a wuss.

Edited by skinewmexico on 11/10/2012 15:43:44 MST.

Yes, but a wuss without a dangerous blood clot!

CT scans are MULTIPLE X-rays. CT scans are the highest levels of medical radiation outside of radiation therapy. Try to avoid them and insist on an MRI.

"Every dose is an overdose."

And here in the good ol' US of A the Feds don't require that a radiological exposure history follow us through our lives - .ie. a "lifetime body load". Thus no doctor knows your radiation exposure history (and most couldnt' care less).

Jus' sayin'...

My addition to this thread is to not take advice from people on forums about healthcare issues. I'm a hospital pharmacist, by no means an expert on diagnosing DVTs, but I know enought to know that some of the advice about what tests you should request or what meds you want is blatantly wrong. A DVT is probably the 2nd or 3rd most routinely treated condition in a hospital behind chest pain and pneumonia. Your doctor is more than capable of ordering the appropriate test. Just trust her/him please.

+1 on not taking medical advice from online forums. I'm an orthopedic PT and nothing pains me more than reading layman's recommendations for treating injuries. Just because something worked for one person doesn't mean it's appropriate for someone else, and in some cases can be actually dangerous. Be careful about soliciting medical advice on the Internet.............