Plane pain: Diagnosis DVT

The last few days haven't been fun.  I returned from a great work trip to Istanbul, but landed in New York with some weird upper calf pain. Tightness, but seemingly unrelated to running (or even sitting on the plane, for that matter). Some google research eventually convinced me by Monday night that I had deep vein thrombosis (DVT), or clotting in the deep veins of the leg.  A closet hypochondriac, I opted to get it checked out when the pains didn't disappear by Tuesday morning and seemed to worsen.

After a brief examination, the doctor said that DVT was doubtful, but to ease my fears, ordered an ultrasound.  The ultrasound technician let me know that she could not say anything to me about what she might find, but that if she told me to go home I was fine, or alternatively asked me to go back to my doctor or to the ER, I was probably not fine.  She spent a lot of time going over the affected area (the test has her starting at the groin, and following the vein down your leg and back around behind your knee and down).  So, when she breezed down the upper leg, and then focused on the painful spot for several minutes, I had a feeling I wouldn't be sent home.

Fast forward 30 minutes, and my doctor was calling the room to talk to me about my results.  No, I didn't have DVT, but did have superficial thrombophlebitis, or clots/inflammation in superficial veins.  Not something I should worry much about, except to take some measures to get rid of these, and prevent them for next time.  No prescription of blood thinners necessary, just go off birth control pills, take an aspirin a day, and elevate the leg when possible.  Exercise was questionable--he didn't know so would get back to me. I had explained to him that I was running for the US at the World 100K championship in 6 weeks, and that the answer to this question was a serious one for me.

I ran the next morning, and my calf wasn't happy.  It felt a good inch shorter than it's normal tight self.  The pain did seem to be worsening, and the doctor never called back.  I finally called and was told he was gone for the day.  Not long after that, his colleague called to say that the ultrasound had been misread; I had both deep and superficial clotting and would need to start blood thinners immediately, and not to exercise.  Most cases would clear up in 6 weeks or so.

I explained my situation to him--that I had a major race in just under 6 weeks, and that lazing about wasn't ideal. He couldn't really tell me anything that I wanted to hear.  He couldn't recommend that I keep training, and couldn't give me a timeline for when that might be possible. But that I needed to start on blood thinners immediately, which is why he was calling, and that I should further discuss with my doctor a plan going forward. A quick google of blood thinners had me a bit freaked out.  No playing with sharp objects or shaving my legs for a while.  Blood thinners and Amy just seem to be a dangerous combo being that I'm quite possibly the most accident-prone person I know.

That was yesterday.  I had a painful night--a feeling of knife stabs into my calf.  I'm no closer to having an answer from my doctor, who told me he's still working to reach out to specialists and get more answers.  I will have blood work done on Monday after I've been on the medication for 5 days which will tell something about the level of something or other in my blood.

I'm stubborn, but not stupid, and if exercise is highly inadvisable than I'll be a good patient, but I'm extremely frustrated at the moment.  I don't want to give up on Worlds, but am not sure when I'll be able to run again.  Regardless of what the doctors tell me, I currently can hardly walk, so even if I had the go-ahead today, couldn't run.  It's hard to believe that the Ray Miller 50 was just over 2 weeks ago. Like they say, ultras are all about peaks and valleys and I seem to have taken a nose-dive off of a high peak into a rather deep valley.