It was a lovely sunny day on Thursday 25th June 2020 when I started to have a problem with my leg, I had taken the day off work to take advantage of the nice weather. After spending the day in the garden, I felt a pain at the back of my leg, as I had been in the garden all day, I just thought that I had been bitten by something. The following day was another lovely day, so I decided to take advantage again and work outside, by the end of the day the back of my leg had become painful and red. Still thinking that caused by being bitten by something I took some antihistamine to try and ease the redness and pain. Over the weekend my leg seemed to get worse, the redness was spreading, and the pain was getting worse. Not knowing what was going on I took myself the pharmacist to see what they thought it could be, they agreed that they thought that I had been bitten and suggest a cream for me to try as well as the antihistamines.
The following Monday nothing had seemed to ease the pain that I was in, so I contacted the doctors who asked me to come in to see them following the phone consultation I had. A nurse examined my leg and suggested that I make my way to A&E to check that I didn’t have a clot. It had never crossed my mind that the pain and redness could potentially be a clot! So anyway, I took myself off to A&E for them to check out my leg. I was taken up to EAU3 where a doctor came to examine my leg and based on that examination they sent me on my way convinced that it was a reaction to some sort of bite and again advised me to continue with the antihistamines. After my trip to A&E my leg didn’t get any better and over the next couple of weeks and lots of back and forth on emails and phone calls and sending photos to the doctors I manage to get an appointment to go to the doctors surgery to be examined again. This time the I had two doctors examine my leg, after the second doctor had looked at my leg, they confirmed that I had a superficial thrombophlebitis. The prescribed me with an ibuprofen cream told me to use this for two weeks and that after that time if I still had a problem to go back and see them.
Day 1 of using the ibuprofen gel and OMG this stuff was amazing! The redness had started to go down and the pain was easing. I was on my way to getting better, the only issue I was now having was that when I went in the bath the redness would come back. Despite this I did what the doctor told me to do and applied the cream to my leg. Then on a Friday evening, nearly two weeks of using the cream to treat a superficial thrombophlebitis I started to get a pain in my left-hand side. I took some tablets and took myself to bed for an early night hoping that I would feel better in the morning. Saturday morning came and I didn’t feel any better, I took some tablets and decided to call 111 as I thought the pain, I was feeling resembled when I had pleurisy. A doctor called me not long after, I talked them through the symptoms, and they told me that I should take paracetamol and ibuprofen over the weekend and call my doctor if I was still having pain on Monday. I ended the call and when on to continue with my day, 5 minutes later the doctor had called me back. They said that because I was being treated for a superficial thrombophlebitis and the contraceptive pill that I was on I had an increased risk of developing a blood clot, I was then advised that if the pain got any worse I should got to A&E.
Throughout the day I continued to get pain in my side, and it had started to spread across my back, I called my mum and she took me to A&E to get checked out. I was sent to the outpatient department and was seen by a nurse, they checked me over and I told them what they 111 doctors said about me being an increased risk of a blood clot. The nurse then listened to my chest and advised me that I didn’t have a blood clot yet and carried out a urine sample to check my kidneys. Once this test had been carried out, they decided that I had a urine infection and gave me some tablets to treat this and sent me on my way.
That Saturday evening, I had one of the worse nights sleeps ever! They pain that I had been experiencing just got worse and worse, nothing that I did seemed to ease it. The whole weekend I was in terrible pain but continued taking the medication that I had been given from the hospital as well as using hot water bottles. It was then Monday and I made my way into work. I will never forget the walk into the office from the car park, as I got up to my office, I wasn’t able to catch my breath. I set myself up at my desk and spent to whole morning trying to get comfortable and having stabbing pains every time that I tried to get a deep breath. I went home late morning to continue working.
Tuesday 14th July 2020 is a date that will stay with me forever! I did my usual, I got up to get ready for work and brushed my teeth and went to grab my bad. I started coughing, I could then take blood in my mouth. I then coughed something up and decided to spit out what was in my mouth, it was a lump of blood! After worrying I called my mum who left work straight away to take me to hospital. I was taken to a section in A&E where bloods were taken, and a doctor then came to see me. I told the doctor everything that had gone on over the past few weeks, the doctor listened to my chest and said that I would be having some tests. I was sent for an x-Ray and CT scan, I then when back to my room and all I kept thinking was the doctors are going to tell me I’m ok and it was nothing serious. After about 5 hours from first getting to A&E a nurse came in to see me with a phone for me to talk to the doctor, they told me that I had the two things the suspected. I had a chest infection and numerous blood clots on my lungs! I didn’t know what to think or feel, everything seemed like a blur! The doctors explained what was going to happen next and a nurse came in to give me my first blood thinning injection and I was sent home for the evening.
The following day I was back up the hospital back in EAU3 to have more tests and to go through my story of what had happened over the previous weeks. After a few hours at the hospital and receiving the results more bloods tests that I had the doctors explained what my plan would be going forward. I was being put on rivaroxaban, for the first 3 weeks I would need to take two tablets twice a day and then after that I would then be on one tablet until further notice. Over the coming weeks I had to go back to the hospital for an appointment with the haematology department to discuss how I needed to take my medication and anything that I could and couldn’t do. After weeks of adjusting to the medication, getting over side effects and calls with a consultant it was confirmed that I would only need to be on the rivaroxaban for 3 months and the cause of my blood clots had been down to the contraception pill that I had been taking for a few years.
After everything that I have gone through I feel very lucky as I have not had to make any life changing adjustments. There are a few things that I need to be mindful of, like if I decide to have children in the future as I will have to be on blood thinners during that time but other than that I am ok. I still worry every time I have a pain in my back or chest, but I am hoping that in time that is something that I am less conscious of am then not spending my day worrying.