Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Leg {Not The Turkey Type}

The entire time I was pregnant with sweet Cate I was in pain. My back and my right leg were in a constant state of pain.  Walking hurt, picking up Brady and even sitting at work hurt.  Throbbing, pulsing pain on a daily basis that literally brought me tears on occasion. Towards the end of my pregnancy I would fight tears in the car driving anywhere and usually let them fall at night when the day was over because I was just so sore.  I complained to no avail.  Everyone I saw in my OB practice kept telling me that once I delivered it would go away.  My OB said I could do physical therapy but she didn't think it would help.  And I thought I was tougher than the pain and just needed to get over it.   I swear I complained every day.  Ask Glenn.  He heard about it for 9 long months. And then I delivered my sweet girl.


All 8 pounds 12 ounces of her, which I thought was small since Brady was a whopping 9 pounds  7 ounces.  But, the pain did not go away. Not one bit. For her entire first year between ignoring it, exhaustion and life, I just never dealt with my right leg.  It hurt but so many things hurt,  mentally and physically,  that I just didn't have the strength to deal with my leg.  I thought it was me being out of shape and my body adjusting to no longer carrying a baby and maybe getting older.  

But this summer, I got to a point where playing at the park with Brady was becoming hard to do without pain.  So, I took the referral I had for over a year in my wallet and made an appointment. I met with a doctor who used to be in my OB practice and switched to vascular medicine after starting a family of her own.  The news was not great. Most of the valves in my large and small saphenous veins in my right leg were collapsed.  The blood was pooling around my knee causing the pain and the bulging in the back of my leg. The swelling was getting worse.  I was so sore that I wasn't sleeping through the night because my leg ached and I had to prop it up when I was cooking dinner or watching tv at night just to try to control the aching.  

I needed to have a series of procedures to remedy the pain with actually no guarantee that they would work.  I waited until it was cold to schedule them since I knew my leg would not look great and I would need to wear a compression stocking.  My fear got the best of me the first time I scheduled the appointments so I cancelled two days before they were supposed to happen.  And I rescheduled for November. I knew this needed to happen.  And two procedures later I am so hoping I am done because the thought of the needles and lasers haunt me.  The original pain is gone. That is good news.  The recovery has been far harder than I thought.  This is bad news. 


And my leg well it is not looking so good…but here’s to hoping I can play at the park, maybe run a half marathon and be pain free. 

4 comments:

  1. Oh friend. I hope you get some relief soon.

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  2. OK...first of all...I feel like a big jerk because I haven't even been to your blog since the redesign. I LOVE IT!

    Second, I'm happy to hear you're on the road to relief/recovery with your leg. I hope you're able to run that pain-free half marathon sooner as opposed to later.

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  3. Oh my goodness. I'm so sad. But I hope that this gets you going quickly! I saw the pic of you and Kate on FB and ahhh I just love seeing it.

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  4. Oh goodness! That looks so painful! I hope you get some relief soon!

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