I'm generally an extremely health conscious person, because I have a ton of health issues and if I don't monitor and manage them constantly, I end up really sick. That said... I'm also human, and as a human sometimes I do very blatantly stupid things.
Ten days ago, I got really sucked into one of those super grindy games that takes hours to accomplish anything in. When gaming, I tend to always get up and walk around every hour, stretch, do ankle circles, etc. to ensure good blood flow. But on this one occasion... despite having the nagging thought that I should get up... I just didn't. Worse still, I was exhausted after the game, and went straight to bed. That's a lot of hours of being sedentary.
The next morning, I woke up with terrible pain my right calf. I tried to feel for what was wrong, and immediately felt a rock harm lump that was so painful I couldn't even touch it. I started to move around and found that my calf was extremely tight. I began looking up the symptoms of a blood clot or DVT. I found many, many stories like mine.
Still, I tried to hope for the best. I had been walking more and doing a lot of calf raises during workouts, so perhaps it was a muscle strain from a few days back that simply hadn't manifested until now. After 9 days, it was still there, although the pain was somewhat less. It wasn't warm to the touch, red, etc. and there was no edema (diffuse swelling that pits when you press.) So I still thought, surely this can't be a clot. But... it just isn't going away despite rest and ice and stretching.
Then I read online countless stories of people who never had more frank symptoms - just a knot and pain like mine - and turned out to have clots. Even the ER docs they saw insisted they didn't, but ultrasound revealed they did. I decided not to chance it, and went to the ER yesterday.
After hours waiting, my calf had swollen considerably larger than the left, which really worried me. "Damn. There's the swelling," I thought to myself. They examined me thoroughly, and said I did the right thing by coming in, because it definitely could be a clot. They were so sure it might be, they forewent a blood test called D-dimer that is usually used to establish the likelihood of a clot before spending money on imaging, and went straight to the ultrasound.
They looked very thoroughly and... thank GOD... I did not have a clot. Instead, I have a somewhat uncommon form of hernia called a fascial hernia due to what is known as chronic lateral exertional compression syndrome. Not at all serious, just painful. They don't really even treat it other than with pain control and physical therapy.
So great is my relief and joy that I'm okay, and so intense was my fear prior to that, I just thought I'd remind my fellow gamers:
Always get up every hour and move around. And if you're on long flights or sitting for any reason longer than an hour, constantly move your toes, ankles, etc. And get up when you can. And as often as you can, elevate your feet (above your heart, it you can.)