If you had DVT in pregnancy, what did it feel like?

[soontobeamum1982]

I have had about a billion tests in this pregnancy, but things have been going better now i'm in the third trimester (I'm 31+4) - but now I've found a new worry, surprise surprise.

I live at the top of a steep hill. I've been working from home today and popped out earlier to get some food shopping. As I walked back up the hill the muscle in my right leg just cramped massively, and I struggled to walk for the rest of the journey. Now it's v tight and I can barely put any weight on it. It just suddenly went.

It doesn't seem hot or swollen (apart from the usual slight ankle swelling) but i've been putting it up all afternoon as I work and it's not really easing. Called my doc but no appointments; just missed MAU hours and I really don't want to bother L+D again after all the time of theirs I've wasted with apparent complications that have come to nothing. Am going to have a hot shower, and then wait to see if it gets easier this evening.

Can those who had a DVT in the calf during pregnancy let me know how it felt/looked? And how did you get seen? Was it through MAU or somewhere else?

Thank you!

I haven't had (fingers crossed) but I do have calf pain in my left leg since Friday, probably exercise related.

I mentioned it to my midwife at my routine appointment (Blood pressure, urine test and baby heartbeat all fine) on Monday. She measured my calves and found them to be around the same size so no swelling (or redness etc) she phoned a doctor at the hospital. They discussed it, and as I was well in myself and prepared to phone triage if it got worse (hasn't so far, I've rested it today and it's felt better but don't know if that's just because I haven't been trying to do much with it).

Do speak to your midwife and see what they say. Mine said it sounds very much like an exercise injury but that for some people DVT does start out this way and of course the complications it can cause are severe.

She said before she phoned the doctor that if they wanted to see me I'd have to go into the hospital with the CLU (rather than one of the small local hospitals) and what they would do is use a smaller Doppler to listen into the blood flow in my calf and if they suspected DVT then a scan might be required.

Thanks Third,
I've decided that if it feels the same tomorrow morning after a night's sleep then I'm going to go to the Maternity Assessment Unit before work and see what they say.
I've consulted Dr Google (I know, I know!) and all the advice there suggests that if it gets better rather than worse it's more than likely to be muscular, strain but if it stays the same or gets worse then to definitely get checked out quickly.

Dvt is horrendeous. If you lay on the bed and relax both your legs is it 'harder' than the other one?

I had one and the pain was intense and got worse very quickly, my thigh was 5cm bigger than the other and my calf was 3cm bigger....

Looking back, mine started exactly like that (post-partum) - walking up a steep hill from the shop! I didn't realise but had a rock-hard calf muscle that overnight swelled into an enormous tree-trunk of a leg, black and no mistaking it. From ankle to hip, it was swollen to double the normal size.

So don't delay, get to an emergency facility as soon as you can to get it checked out. My massive swelling did lasting vascular damage.

Hopefully it's nothing but better to check it out.

but as far as I recall, one major difference was I could bear weight on it easily if standing still. It was just walking that created intense pain. So hopefully yours is different. But get it checked.

As an interim tool, measure your calf and mark in indelible pen where you held the tape. Then measure again in a few hours if you haven't already gone to doctor.

Oh and use this time to shave legs and trim toenails - mine was when my baby was a newborn so you can imagine how much my grooming standards had slipped by the time I was showing teams of doctors and students my legs!