My Mysterious Leg Incident

Ouch. Freakin' Ouch. That's all I can say about the ungodly pain that hit my left leg the earlier this week. I woke up in the middle of the night, Tuesday with an incredible throbbing pain in my left leg, front upper thigh area, and then spreading around my knee and then down a little to my calf. I didn't fall back asleep until around 4ish in the morning. I waited for it to go away because I am afraid of all things doctor and I didn't want to have to call. But suffering all day at work, trying to mask the pain, just wasn't working-- of course I googled and WebMD'd "left leg pain," "pain in my left leg" and "dull pain in left leg" and other appropriate keyword phrases and blod clot was one of them. I started a new BC pill, and that is one of the more serious side effects of the pill, so I got a little freaked and called the doctor.

My doctor sent me to the hospital for a stat venus doppler. The experience at the hospital left a lot to be desired because no one could figure out where I was supposed to go- radiology or cardiology and I really didn't care what -ology it was. There was bickering between all the techs and staff, etc. as to whether it should be an ariterial or venus doppler- because my doctor had given a verbal order since it was stat-- and it was just after 4:30 and the main staff had left. So, they finally figured it out after paging my doctor twice. I had the ultrasound done on my leg-- man oh man is that gel cold. When she pushed in, you could hear my blood pushing through my veins or arteries or whatever. It was kind of cool. Negative per the tech, but the doctor would look at them in the morning.

Not that I wanted a blood clot. I just wanted to reason for the pain. So, I went home and went straight to sleep. That's right- I didn't even check my email! I had another horrible night sleep and the pain got worse. When I finally got out of bed and started to get ready for work, I decided instead of going straight to work, I'd do the ER first. This was the quickest service I ever got in the ER. I was checked in, given my wristband and called into the triage nurse within ten minutes. I guess my body was sensitive to pain because when the nurse turned on the automatic blood pressure machine and it got to the point where the thingy gets really tight, tears started streaming down my cheeks and I guess I wimpered a litte so she ripped the thing off and then did it by hand and took me right into a bed.

The PA came right over and pushed and prodded on my leg and asked questions. She disappeared and a doctor came back and he did the same thing. All they did was give me Flexerol, a muscle relaxer and a pain medication- not the good kind, haha- and sent me on my way. It took a while for the meds to kick in. I went to my pharmacy and then back to work. Today it's Saturday and the pain is still there a little- I didn't take anything yet and it's 2ish. So, I thought maybe it went away, but I was taking them all week and today is the first time I missed a note.

Sidebar: Drinking while on muscle relaxers is fun, but they kind of made me conk right out after a while.