Husband woke in the early hours in agony. He was in so much pain that he struggled to breathe to tell me what was going on. An icy fist grabbed my heart as I imagined heart attack or something (he’s due to have an x ray soon to check out what we hope is a very persistent chest strain). He managed to gasp out that his leg had agonising cramp-lie pain. He was pale and sweating, struggling to breathe – this wasn’t like any cramp we’d ever seen. The pain eased a fraction with massage and heated bean bags but whatever I did to try and help, the pain wasn’t going anywhere; it was painful just to watch.
We don’t ask for help easily but after a good 3 hours of this we rang 111. They said that someone would call within 4 hours. Note to self: if you are in terrible pain, don’t wait for hours before asking for advice on 111.
The pain wasn’t getting any better so in desperation I suggested we call our GP surgery. The GP rang back almost immediately and said she’d see him this morning. He couldn’t put weight on his leg so grabbed an old pair of crutches to get mobile – we never throw anything out!
As he was about to go into the GP surgery the 111 nurse rang and told us to go to A and E… Our GP was really on the ball and said she’d treat him for a deep vein thrombosis in case and refer him for an ultrasound to be sure. No need to go to A and E. Our local pharmacist was also on the ball, querying the dosage of the anticoagulants. Apparently it’s only recently that primary care doctors have been able to prescribe anticoagulants in this way. We live in a small rural community and were so impressed to be assessed and given medication so quickly, particularly in a pandemic.
He has an appointment for the ultrasound tomorrow. I am so grateful (again) for the care he’s receiving from the NHS. He’s still very uncomfortable but the pain is less scary. Apparently blood clots are not uncommon with lymphoma. We’re hoping that it’s not a clot but I’m so grateful that he’s on medication in case.
Day 2
He’s getting around better but can’t walk far and can’t go anywhere without crutches. I’m just so grateful that the pain is easier for him today.
Fantastically the ultrasound showed that he doesn’t have a DVT. Yeahy! They don’t know why he’s in pain and can’t suggest much to deal with it but at least it’s not what they feared. It’s not dangerous. That’ll do for us!
Our GP is puzzled but said that muscles can go into bad spasms after injury. But Husband hasn’t injured himself. Weird. We’re all more fragile than we think we are. Our bodies are incredible but we only notice how complex they are when something’s out of whack.
So for now he’s very uncomfortable, on crutches, no idea what’s wrong or what to do about it but it’s not serious. No dramas – that’s a win!
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