Reply...
Hope you don't develop cellulitis on the leg... whatever happened to it?
Gaucho_59,
Here is the whole deal. I had a CT Scan done on my arteries and veins with contrast, and it showed some surprising results and some unexpected complications. I had a severe DVT in my left leg in 2001 at the age of 23 that went from my ankle to my waist, and another in my right leg in 2005 that did less damage to the right leg. I am not diabetic, but do I have Factor Five, and the skin of my lower left leg is pigmented and I have chronic venous stasis ulcers, and have been dealing with this particular episode since February 2016. I have a compression bandage that I keep on my lower left leg, and have this bandage changed three days a week. The reason why I was hospitalized was because the wounds began exuding a copious amount of drainage that was causing the surrounding skin to macerate. They are doing an MRI this morning to check for a bone infection. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some degree of cellulitis.
The CT scan I had on February 15th, 2017 revealed that I essentially have little or no inferior vena cava from my pelvis up to about my kidney; it has shriveled from atrophy because of the deep vein thrombosis down to about the size of dental floss. What my body has essentially done to get around this is take the veins closer to the surface and turn them from country roads into highways, which creates more venous pressure, and makes the veins on my stomach, thighs, and pelvis look like the street map of Greater Pittsburgh. The doctor said that the fact that my body managed to do this at all without me dying is kind of a miracle. I've been hearing that my whole life with all the birth defects I had.
The vascular surgeon fears that if they attempt to put a stent in and something were to fail it could damage my kidney and I would end up on dialysis. I've had abnormal kidney function since birth; one is grossly enlarged and does most of the functioning, while the other one's functioning is limited. The stent could damage the good kidney. If they also attempt to go in with a catheter, the blockages have been there for so long, they are like cement. If they try to push out or remove the clots, it could either shred the vein or dislodge part of the clot and cause an embolism.
There is also a question now about amputation...first, whether there is enough good venous flow to facilitate healing for the flap. Second, whether they would have to go below or above the knee, and third, the edema, or swelling I deal with is not solely limited to the lower limb where my skin ulcers are, it's elsewhere as well, and if they amputate, the swelling may retard the healing and recovery, or worse, blow out the sutures and require another operation.
My vascular surgeon decided to consult with some of his colleagues in Boston to try and find a solution to this. Until then, I am in limbo. I also found out that I could be in the hospital and/or rehab up to three weeks...