Lottie was 1 day away from being 3 weeks old, my anxieties had tripled ten fold after coming home from the hospital, my Health Visitor recognised the symptoms of Post Natal Depression and had come around to see how I was doing. Many pregnant women get a condition called Pelvic Girdle, constant aching from your lower back, the joys of pregnancy! I had suffered with this in the last 10 weeks and was offered nothing, but you can have physio, if you press your midwife enough. After she had gone, and I was left with leaflets and self-help groups, I had noticed my left leg had become swollen, the other half went to go get his son from school, and I went upstairs to rest, as Lottie sleeping. It took me 10 minutes to climb 13 steps, it felt like I had run a marathon, couldn’t catch my breath, felt very breathless. Led on bed, and realised that feet were cold, but my left foot was gray, checked for circulation, nothing really happening! Called my GP at the time, explained the symptoms, they gave me an emergency appointment. Now I don’t know if some of you are like me, but I google everything, and I googled my symptoms and got Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) so I rang my GP back in a panic, unbeknownst to me, they were going to call me back and get me in quicker.
4pm – appointment with my doctor, lovely person. He confirmed my own diagnosis, rang twice for an ambulance to come get me, but they was busy. So other half took me in the car and I made it to the Royal Gwent hospital in 15 minutes! But this was 6pm by then and MAU (Medical Assessment Unit) was full. I was supported in by my sisters, they had come to get the kids. I could barely walk, and nearly collapsed in the queue. Waiting in triage until 10pm, when my name was called, unfortunately there was no wheelchair available, so I was passed over. I then waited until about 2am the next morning, wheelchair found and I was assessed. Yes – confirmation of a POTENTIAL DVT, yes they couldn’t actually diagnose me without a CT Scan. I stayed in Triage on the bed, as nowhere else to put me, but got a bed in the day unit at 6am. CT scan and chest x-rays later on in the morning confirmed my venous thrombosis, meaning \I had a clot in my femoral artery in my pelvic region, subsequently draining blood from my heart. I also had a pulmonary embolism in my left lung. The clot had broken up and travelled to my lungs, hence the difficulty breathing. I was placed on heparin, a clot busting drug, and waited for a transfer to a vascular ward.
I will tell all in the next instalment, but for information, not being able to breathe and in great pain is not something I want to go through ever again, and I would rate that pain worse than childbirth. Thanks for reading so far.
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