Unexplained symptom-heated calf.
I know. It sounds totally stupid and fake, right? But for over a week, my right calf has, well, felt….hot. Stop rolling your eyes at me. I know it sounds made up. Therefore, I tried not to whine and complain about it too much. Except for at home. Poor Ryan.
I’ve also had some other cruddy stuff going on this week that made me not so productive around the house. I’ll just say it was a stomach flu kind of a thing and leave it at that. Even after I’d made it through the worst of the sick part, I have been just SAPPED of all energy. If I’m able to do my volunteer commitments for church and at the school, I’ve come home totally exhausted and lay around on the couch not doing all the mom things I should have been doing. By Thursday, I had just enough in my energy reserves to make it through the book fair, a short shopping trip and parent teacher conference. I came home feeling ready to drop into a coma. But this leg thing, it was just driving me crazy! Was it really hot? If only there were a way to measure the temperature. Then I remembered that Ryan had picked up this crazy temperature gadget that is something like this HERE.
I waited until the leg was having a hot spasm (it isn’t hot ALL the time, just when it feels like being hot) and rolled up my pants and asked him to scan me. Sure enough, the right leg was TWO degrees hotter than the left leg. And when I measured it later, it was THREE degrees hotter.
HA! So I’m NOT just making it up. There really IS something wrong with me.
Then my worry level began to kick it up a notch, because there really IS something wrong with me. You may remember that time that I was pretty much convinced that I had a brain tumor because I kept smelling a strange illusive burning smell. That wasn’t much fun. But my point is that I am a worrier, so when I can’t figure out what is wrong, I worry, and it makes it worse.
I contacted our doctor to see if he thought it was a big deal. He asked me some questions and said it wouldn’t be a bad idea to come in to the office the next day. And he’s not just fishing for a co-pay. So, he squished me into his schedule, and at 8:15 the next morning, there I was. He checked out my calf, and sure enough, he could FEEL the heat. Even though I didn’t have swelling or pain, heat is one of the symptoms of a blood clot, and I’ve had a few minor blood clots before, so he sent me off to schedule an ultrasound at the hospital. They didn’t have any appointments until 3 pm. Ugh. I’m supposed to have 8 little achievement day girls over to my house at 4 to make whole wheat bread, but it’s that or 6, so I take the 3.
At 2:30, with my first batch of bread made and my kitchen cleaned up and prepped for the second batch with the girls, and there I was at the hospital. Sitting in the radiation waiting room is always uncomfortable, because I wonder what all these other people are here for. One lady has to drink some kind of special drink before her CT scan, someone else is there with their two little kids, and I wonder why they are there. Cancer? Darn it, I think, why didn’t I schedule a mammogram, since I have to be here anyway? The ultrasound tech took me early (thank goodness) and had me all prepped and covered with slime before 3. I tried to be all casual and read my book while she searched my leg for clots, but I was indeed worried. And then she was done. What was that, 13 minutes? Really? I sat up and watched her type “no evidence of DVT” into the computer before she left to share her findings with the radiologist. No clot, huh? Well, then what the heck is causing these weird hot flashes of the leg? I got dressed and then talked to my doc on the phone, who confirmed that they had found no clot, and that I should be relieved that I don’t have a blood clot.
Relieved? Yes. Still confused? Yes.
So I have….nothing? I wasted several hours of my day and several hundred of my dollars to find out that I do NOT have a blood clot.
Well, at least I can hopefully get over those nightmares about how I’m going to manage after my stroke.
And hopefully the leg hot flashes will also diminish when I stop stressing out about it. How do you spell psy-cho-so-mat-ic?
Oh, I so get this.
This really grabs my attention today as my right calf and outside foot are freezing and it, too, can be measured externally. Portions all up and down my right side can go ice-cold while the left is normal; they are still thinking possible MS but no proof on MRIs yet.
So why it grabs is that this sounds like a nerve issue to me. Maybe a pinched or pulled deal. Did the doctor suggest that, after you rule out a clot, you discuss a neurological workup? If he didn’t mention it, I’d maybe just ask at your follow-up visit.
Incidentally, it would never have occurred to me that you are a hypochondriac!
But along with the flu stuff I’d sure slow down for a day or tow, Paige. Can’t be too careful.
Sounds like me and my hot flashes, that heat up my face and body something fierce. But just in the leg, now that’s weird. I’m sorry you’ve had all that yucky stuff this week, plus a hot leg. I know you don’t have time to be sick. Are you trying a cold pack on your leg when that happens?