There I was yesterday, with a distressingly swollen and tender shin, lurid bruising extending down to my foot, concerned I might have cracked the bone....
I made an appointment at the closest drive-through doc. We've got one in Broad Ripple again, and they've been businesslike and easy to deal with, the couple of times I've gone there.
They got me in quickly, checked my temperature, blood pressure (just fine -- the "white coat syndrome" that used to overwhelm the good effects of my blood pressure medicine at any doctor's office is doing better these days), and had a look at my leg. There was a fair amount of cogitation on the part of the doctor and nurse. The conclusion was that it was a sure-enough clot, and maybe rather more than might be expected from the accident as I described it. (I fell up the basement stairs and took the edge of a sturdy step right on that shin.) My left ankle was over twice as big around as the right.
The thing to do was to get an ultrasound -- and to go do so at an ER. I expressed doubt at going to the hospital over this. Say "stroke risk," and they bring out the fancy toys, much excitement, high cost--*
Oh, no, says the doc, not that. Go to one of the standalone ER/urgent care combinations. They're quicker anyway.
So I did. The closest place was halfway across town, a long drive with me thinking all the time how very interesting it will be if the big blob breaks loose and fries my brain, right there along Westfield Avenue or one of the crowded east-west numbered roads in the hundreds, where the northern suburbs have just continued Indianapolis street numbers past the county line. Got there with skull contents intact, boiled same slightly stuck in traffic gridlocked by dog-in-the-manger drivers and eventually checked in and got led back to a comfy exam room forthwith. Physical exam followed: "Yes, yes, probably a hematoma, but. Um, that's pretty far down on your calf, in front. The big veins are around back, and they're branched out and skinny that far down. I guess I see why they sent you but the risk is low. It's not that kind of clot."
Sonogram next, to confirm there were no chunky bits up where they'd make trouble. X-ray after that, and hey hurrah, the bone's okay. But there is a big, ugly splotch, a hematoma right on the bone, almost certainly under the layer of tissue normally next to the bone. "That's going to be a long time going down, weeks and weeks. And it's gonna hurt the whole time. Normal recommendation is compression, but as you already observed, it'll be painful."
He was talking about socks with that last line. I usually wear knee-high compression stockings; I'm an old lady on blood-pressure meds that make my ankles swell. The fix is easy, cheap and supposedly good for you, but I hadn't been able to wear them for a couple of days.
The doctor's conclusion was that I wasn't at any risk of a stroke from that clot. It was going to stay right where it was, slowly being nibbled away by the normal process of healing, and it was going to remind me it was there the entire time, all day and all night. I'm not a fan, but it beats having my brain scrambled by leaps, bounds and miles.
I took today off, to elevate my calf (also recommended), complain online, and, ouch, wear compressions stockings. I peeled a set on last night and they can darned well stay on all day today. I'm in no hurry to slide anything over the big bruise again until I have to.
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* It also bugs me that you jump the triage line in a hospital ER with this kind of thing, at least for the initial diagnosis, and I worry that they're going to be poking at me and my stable situation when someone gets wheeled in, smashed up after an auto accident or whatever. I have been that person and I don't want to be the reason they have to lay there bleeding and hurting before anyone gets around to them.
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