Life after DVT - Prologue Part 1

Why have I decided do this now? Yesterday after 10 days of tests and trips to the hospital, a haematologist has advised that I have to take warfarin for the rest of my life. Currently I am 34 and have been plagued with 'bad legs' for the last 8 years.

Here is my story

Just over 8 years ago I was diagnosed with bi-lateral deep vein thrombosis. Which is deep vein thrombosis in both legs at the same time.

It happened because of a long coach journey from London to Prague in the Czech Republic. The journey lasted 24 hours with very few stops. When there was a rest it was for no more than 10 minutes at best. What also didn't help was the fact we were on my way to our honeymoon and my wife and I had both consumed large amounts of alcohol in the 2 days prior to the journey. On top of that my wife had for some considerable time fallen asleep across my legs. Oh and just to make sure a DVT was a dead cert, I was at the front of the coach behind the driver meaning I had no space under the next seat to stretch my legs out.

The effect did not hit me straight away. In fact we were lucky that we had several days of honeymoon bliss. That was until I started to feel a bit ill, started being a bit grouchy and started having problems walking any reasonable distance. At this point I wasn't too worried, and simply put it down to being very tired after the wedding, the journey and the large amounts of food and drink being consumed whilst on honeymoon. It wasn't until I awoke one morning with two very blue and very swollen legs that I suspected that this was a serious problem.

My wife if half Czech and so we contacted some family near by who helped to get an appointment at the local hospital. I was given a rather painful injection in the back side and advised to either go home to the UK for tests in a UK hospital or stay in Czech for equivalent tests. At this point with know one having a clue what was wrong, I opted to get a last minute flight back to the UK. Ok, so flying with no form of anti coagulation or compression stocking whilst suffering from such serious DVT's could have been a death sentence for me. I was lucky...

On my arrival at about 4am to the Royal Liverpool Hospital A&E department I was seen very quickly indeed. Bearing in mind that I had now lost the ability to walk all together. The registrars on duty at the time were to say the least a little mystified as to what was wrong with me. Initial guestimates included a clot in my aorta. This they both believed to be a fatal condition and advised me of such. By this time I had been married about 6 days and was put in the position of taking my new wife to one side, well she pushed me in the wheel chair, and telling her that I may not make it through the next couple of days. Not a nice thing to have to do...

Well, lucky for me the registrars were both wrong. I had actually presented with bi-lateral DVT's with almost identical level of symptoms in both legs.

Ok, so that's the basic story up to my being in the right place to be treated for this horrible and life threatening condition.

I'll continue with a couple more entrees to cover the remainder of this particular chapter and will then push on with regular updates of my current situation.