Hi, my name is Abbie I live in Essex in the UK.
I am 25 years old and in March 2021 I experienced the most scary three days of my life.
I experienced a blood clot…
I woke up on the Tuesday with extreme pain in my right leg almost felt like I had done a massive work out and pulled every muscle in my leg! The pain was worse in my calf just constantly throbbing!
I was working from home for over a year and had not done any extensive exercise.
I continued to work as normal and just hoped I would feel better the next day!
I was very wrong!
The next day was even worse I couldn’t even put any weight on my right leg the pain was something I’ve never experienced ever before! I called 111 line and they weren’t worried as I didn’t have the typical symptoms of a blood clot, such a red leg or swollen leg, so they told me just to rest up…
Day three I contacted them again and was in tears down the phone I knew something wasn’t right! I was then told to ring my GP but with COVID going on I was unable to get an appointment so the 111 line had to organise this for me!
Thank god I got in when I did!
she said I needed to be seen at the hospital
My GP doctor saw me and she said I needed to be seen at the hospital within the next 12 hours I then spent all day in A&E after having a D Dimmer test which came back positive I was just sent home with blood thinners.
Two days after that as it was over a weekend I finally got scanned and even the man that scanned thought he wouldn’t find anything!
Yet 10 mins later I’m being told I have 5cm blood clot
Yet 10 mins later I’m being told I have 5cm blood clot in my right leg, it was the most scariest thing to hear at the age of 25?!
They suggested the clot was unprovoked, but also said it might have been linked my pill I had been on that pill for 10 years so I just don’t know.
Every pain I get in my body I’m scared
Six months later I recently had a call with my haematologist.
I’m being referred to a vascular specialist – haematologist also wants me to stay on blood thinners for the foreseeable as I am still on the contraceptive pill, and a scan is very unlikely to happen as normally they do not re scan.
I guess the lesson was trust your body, you know your body more than anyone!
I was so lucky that the blood clot didn’t travel to somewhere else in my body it took over four days to actually know I had a blood clot!
Don’t be scared to contact your GP or Hospital.