My surgery on my right foot was on a Wednesday, my follow up appointment with my foot doctor was on a Friday, and on Tuesday morning I woke up with an awful stabbing sensation under the left side of my ribcage. It hurt to breathe. We knew something was wrong. My husband helped me get down to the car, and we were at the emergency room at 7 AM.
After IVs, blood tests, an EKG, a COVID test, and a CT scan... I found out I was still COVID negative, but unfortunately I had developed dangerous blood clots in both of my lungs. As I lay in the ER waiting to be admitted, I had tears running down my face and soaking the ear loops of my face mask. The entire left side of my chest was on fire. If I tried to take a deep breath, the pain radiated from my hip the whole way up to my ear. I COULD NOT believe that this was happening to me, and I was terrified.
It was the second time in three years that I was told I almost died. The last time was when my daughter was born in 2018- at 32 weeks via emergency C-section, because I had severe pre-eclampsia. My oxygen levels were low, my heart rate was dropping, my lungs filling up with fluid. I was hospitalized for 10 days, my daughter in the NICU for 41 days. It was a traumatic experience, but luckily I fully recovered and my daughter hasn't had any lasting complications from being born prematurely.
I was admitted to the hospital in the INCU and put on blood thinners immediately. Fortunately, my breathing never deteriorated enough that I had to be put on oxygen this time around.
Prior to my foot surgery, I had to get a chest Xray, EKG, bloodwork, and a COVID test done. Everything came back completely normal. I also had to have a pre-op physical. My PCP was confused why I was there, because all of my tests had been normal and I was an otherwise healthy 34 year old. Maybe overweight and with a potassium level that was a little low, but nothing to indicate that I would have any issues with this surgery or the recovery following it. Because of this, I wasn't put on a blood thinner in the hospital. I didn't wear any compression socks.
Getting up and moving around following a foot surgery is painful and awkward and uncomfortable, but YOU HAVE TO DO IT. Get up at least once an hour. Don't be like me. I would not wish this condition and the recovery I've been through on anyone. Please, please, please. Buy yourself some compression socks before you have the surgery and wear one home from the hospital on your non-surgical leg. Force yourself to get up and move around.
The blood clots I had formed in my surgical leg. I had felt something like a Charley-horse under my cast a couple times, but didn't really think anything of it- I was just frustrated that I couldn't stretch it out to relieve the pain like I had before. I took a muscle relaxer and went back to sleep. I had no idea that these blood clots were forming and then traveling to my lungs.
I was in the hospital for three days. The pain I felt when I tried to get a deep breath was intense. The first night I was there, the pain traveled from my left side up into my shoulders, and the second day the pain traveled to my right side, where it started causing muscle spasms in my lower back. The entire second morning of my hospital stay - at least five hours - were spent trying to relieve the intense pain I felt in my back and chest, while also keeping my foot elevated and managing THAT pain. Finally the nurse was able to get permission to give me anti-inflammatory meds on top of the other drugs I was already on, and those combined with pure exhaustion allowed me to sleep for a few hours.
Like I said. Do your research, request blood thinners post surgery if that's right for you, get some compression socks, and move around. Do everything you can to avoid blood clots. I am now six weeks post-hospitalization for the PEs, and seven weeks post foot surgery, and I am still experiencing pain in my chest, while my foot is basically healed.
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